A pro-Palestinian demonstrator who was arrested but not ultimately charged with terror charges after chanting support for the October 7 Hamas attacks has been identified as Mohammad al-Mail, a 27-year-old Kuwaiti national who was granted refugee status in Britain in 2017.
Mail reportedly shouted “I love the 7th of October” and “I like an organisation that starts with H” through a megaphone at an anti-Israel protest in Swiss Cottage, north-west London, last September.
According to the Telegraph, despite being arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences, he was never charged by the Crown Prosecution Service.
The case sparked controversy over alleged two-tier policing after a Jewish counter-protester at the same event was charged for holding a placard mocking Hezbollah’s leader, with police claiming it could cause “distress” to terrorist sympathisers.
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator who avoided terror charges after chanting support for the October 7 Hamas attacks has been identified as Mohammad al-Mail
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Mail claimed he avoided prosecution by telling counter-terrorism officers that the “H” in his chant stood for the Home Office rather than Hamas.
In an Arabic-language podcast aired in March, he appeared to boast about his response to investigators.
He said the case “fell apart” after he gave his answer.
Mail added: “Immediately, I answered, ‘It could be the Home Office’, you know, the ministry of the interior. ‘I love the ministry of the interior’, and so on.”
Mail reportedly shouted ‘I like an organisation that starts with H’ through a megaphone at an anti-Israel protest in Swiss Cottage, north-west London, last September
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He joked: “Truly, as the saying goes, ‘The worst calamity is the one that makes you laugh'”.
Mail added that officers “wanted to delve into the depths of my conscience to know what I truly believe”.
The Metropolitan Police twice referred his case to the CPS, but prosecutors declined to bring charges, fearing it would be “speculation” to infer support for a proscribed group from his chant.
Since being granted asylum, Mail seems to have used his campaign group, the Upper Hand Organisation, to promote an Islamist ideology which appears fundamentally at odds with British democratic values.
Mail reportedly shouted ‘I love the 7th of October’ through a megaphone at an anti-Israel protest in Swiss Cottage, north-west London, last September
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In the same podcast, he urged supporters to “seize opportunities” created by the October 7 attack.
He said: “Not every day is like October 7. If an opportunity arises, we must fully exploit it. If you strike, make it hurt.”
He has criticised Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and HTS for being too pragmatic, writing that such groups have “ultimately succumbed to the international system and failed to bring about significant change to the concept of jihad itself jihad, which is understood as a struggle to establish Sharia on earth”.
Chris Philp, the Shadow Policing Minister, said “the police must urgently re-investigate the incident with a view to re-arresting the man concerned”.
