Review into Palestine Action ban will go ahead

A judicial review of the ban on Palestine Action will be allowed to go ahead, a judge at Scotland's highest civil court has ruled.

The UK government proscribed the group as a terrorist organisation in July last year.

Former diplomat Craig Murray brought a petition for a review of the decision to the Court of Session earlier this month.

Lord Young granted permission for the case to proceed with a procedural hearing on 23 February and a two-day substantive hearing on 17 and 18 March.

Former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper proscribed the group under the 2000 Terrorism Act after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and damaged aircraft.

MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of the move, which criminalises supporting the group under punishment of up to 14 years in prison.

However, it has also been challenged at the High Court in London.

Since the ban came in, thousands of people across the UK have been arrested for supporting the group.

Former First Minister Humza Yousaf called for "peaceful protesters" who backed the group to be exempted from prosecution.

The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) welcomed the news that the review can go ahead.

Spokesman Mick Napier said: "This offers real hope that the judicial review will halt this escalating madness by challenging the wholesale arrests of peaceful protesters."

Murray was represented at the initial hearing on 12 January by Joanna Cherry KC.

She told the court: "This is a case of great constitutional significance which impacts on fundamental liberty and human rights of people living and working in Scotland.

"Generally, people enjoy the freedoms of expression and assembly set out in Articles 10 and 11 in the European Court of Human Rights.

"This proscription has curtailed those liberties."

In submissions to the High Court in London, lawyers for the UK government said MPs "acted lawfully" in identifying incidents which they believed justified a ban under terrorism legislation.

The UK government has been contacted for comment.