Related Stories
Heba Alhayek, 29, and Pauline Ankunda, 26, attached images to their backs seven days after Hamas militants used paragliders to enter Israel in October.
Noimutu Olayinka Taiwo, 27, stuck one to a placard’s handle at a central London pro-Palestinian march.
They denied charges under the Terrorism Act.
The three were charged with carrying or displaying an article to arouse reasonable suspicion that they were supporters of banned organisation Hamas.
Convicting them at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram said: “Seven days earlier, Hamas went into Israel with what was described by the media as paragliders.
“A reasonable person would have seen and read that.
“I do not find a reasonable person would interpret the image merely as a symbol of freedom.”
During their trial, prosecutor Brett Weaver told the court that the images displayed could have been viewed as “celebrating the use of the paragliders’ tactic”.
But Mr Ikram, delivering his verdict, said: “I want to be clear, there’s no evidence that any of these defendants are supporters of Hamas, or were seeking to show support for them.”
He said he had “decided not to punish” the defendants, and handed the trio each a 12-month conditional discharge.
“You crossed the line, but it would have been fair to say that emotions ran very high on this issue,” Mr Ikram said.
“Your lesson has been well learned. I do not find you were seeking to show any support for Hamas.”
Lawyers for the group had suggested they were actually displaying images of a parachute emoji rather than paragliders, and claimed police had “mistaken” what they saw that day.
Mark Summers KC, for Alhayek and Ankunda, said the idea that the image was a paraglider started with “an internet group with an agenda”.
He also argued that flying-related images were a common symbol of peace in the region.
Reacting to the verdict, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said displaying the images amounted to the “glorification of the actions” of Hamas.
Continue here: BBC
