Kneecap rapper will not face trial after government loses appeal over terror charge

The rapper, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was accused of displaying a flag in support of proscribed terror organisation Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, on November 21 2024.

Hundreds of supporters flocked to Westminster Magistrates' Court last June in support of the artist.

But the case was thrown out in September last year on technical grounds, with chief magistrate Paul Goldspring ruling the proceedings were "instituted unlawfully".

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) appealed against the decision at the High Court at a hearing in January, with the Kneecap rapper opposing the appeal.

In a judgment on Wednesday, two judges at the High Court upheld the decision and dismissed the CPS appeal.

Judge Goldspring had agreed with O hAnnaidh's lawyers that prosecutors needed to seek the Attorney General's permission to charge the rapper before informing him on May 21 that he would be charged with a terror offence.

This permission was sought and given the following day, which the court heard meant the charge fell outside the six-month time frame in which criminal charges against a defendant can be brought.

Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mr Justice Linden, said that "the judge was right to hold that he had no jurisdiction to try any summary-only offence alleged to have been committed on that date".

In the 13-page decision, Lord Justice Edis said their decision "turned on a very narrow and technical legal issue and has nothing to do with whether the respondent committed the offence set out in the charge".

He said: "The respondent has not been tried for his alleged conduct on September 21 2025 and will not be tried.

"He has not been convicted, and he has not been acquitted."

Following the decision, a CPS spokesperson said: "The High Court has clarified how the law applies to the issuing of written charges in summary offences where attorney general permission was required for the director of public prosecutions to consent to a prosecution.

"We accept the judgment and will update our processes accordingly."

The band had described the prosecution as a 'witch hunt' in a post on X yesterday, which included a billboard with the above slogan - echoing the racist 'no blacks, no dogs, no Irish' signs commonplace in the windows of rooming houses in London in the 1950s.

Kneecap said they have 'never supported' Hamas or Hezbollah, both of which are banned in the UK.