A woman who was convicted under the Terrorism Act for displaying a paraglider image at a pro-Palestine protest could be deported as her immigration status is being reviewed by the Home Office. Heba Alhayek, 29, came to the UK as an asylum seeker claiming to be fleeing from Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and is banned in the UK. She previously said that her life would be at risk if she returned to Gaza after her family’s criticism of Hamas.
However, she was found guilty of carrying or displaying an article to arouse reasonable suspicion that she was a supporter of Hamas, along with two other women, Pauline Ankunda, 26, and Noimutu Olayinka Taiwo, 27.
The three women displayed stickers showing a paraglider with the word “Hamas” on a London march on October 14, 2023, just seven days after Hamas terrorists used paragliders to enter Israel and kill 1,200 people in a mass shooting.
They were given a 12-month conditional discharge by Judge Tan Ikram, who said he had decided “not to punish” them because he did not believe they were true Hamas supporters and “emotions” had “run very high” at the time of their offence.
According to Dailymail, The judge’s decision sparked outrage among MPs and campaigners, who called for a judicial review and a probe into his impartiality after it emerged that he had liked an anti-Israel post on LinkedIn by a barrister who had previously promoted conspiracy theories claiming that Israel allowed the October 7 attack.
The post, by barrister Sham Uddin, stated: “Free Palestine. To the Israeli terrorist both in the United Kingdom, the United States, and of course Israel you can run, you can bomb but you cannot hide – justice will be coming for you.”
The Home Office told the Telegraph that “supporting banned terrorist groups will not be tolerated” and that it was looking into Alhayek’s immigration status¹. A spokesman said: “The Government will always prioritise the safety and security of the UK, the offences associated with proscription make it clear that supporting banned terrorist groups will not be tolerated.”
Alhayek’s lawyer told the court that she had been granted refugee status in the UK after claiming that her life would be in danger if she returned to Gaza because of her family’s criticism of Hamas¹. He said that she had worn the sticker as a “symbol of resistance” and that she did not support violence or terrorism¹.
The other two women, Ankunda and Taiwo, were also asylum seekers from Uganda and Nigeria respectively. They said that they had joined the protest out of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and that they did not know what the paraglider image meant.
The offence of carrying or displaying an article to arouse reasonable suspicion that one is a supporter of a proscribed organisation carries a maximum jail term of six months⁴. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that it was considering seeking a judicial review of the judge’s decision.
Former attorney general and home secretary Suella Braverman said: “With anti-Semitism at an all-time high, judges must be impartial and beyond reproach.” Claudia Mendoza, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, described the sentence as “woefully inadequate” and the judge’s remarks as “extremely surprising”.
