Hello and welcome to the details of New laws give police in England power to arrest masked protesters and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Demonstrators who climb national monuments could face a three-month jail sentence or a £1,000 fine under the new proposals. — AFP pic
LONDON, Feb 9 — New laws will give police in England and Wales the power to arrest protesters who refuse to remove face coverings, the government said yesterday.
Demonstrators who climb national monuments could face a three-month jail sentence or a £1,000 (RM6,025) fine under the new proposals.
Rights groups have condemned the new powers, but the interior ministry, the Home Office, said in a statement that the right to protest is “no longer an excuse for certain public order offences”.
The proposals, which will be added to criminal justice legislation being considered by parliament, follow displays of anti-Semitism at mass demonstrations against Israel’s military action in Gaza which began last October.
Advertisement
Police chiefs have warned that some protesters were “using face coverings to conceal their identities, not only to intimidate the law-abiding majority, but also avoid criminal convictions”.
Campaigners, however, denounced the measures as a “threat to everybody’s right to protest”.
Under the reforms, possession of flares, fireworks or a any other pyrotechnics at public rallies and gatherings will also be made illegal.
Advertisement
Home Secretary James Cleverly said recent protests had seen a “small minority dedicated to causing damage and intimidating the law-abiding majority”.
“The right to protest is paramount in our county, but taking flares to marches to cause damage and disruption is not protest, it is dangerous,” he said.
“That is why we are giving police the powers to prevent any of this criminality on our streets,” he added.
Akiko Hart, director of human rights group Liberty branded the measures a “massive overreach by the government and a threat to everybody’s right to protest”.
“This is an outrageous attempt to clamp down on our fundamental right to stand up for what we believe in,” Hart added.
Tens of thousands of people joined demonstrations across the UK following Israel’s military intervention in Gaza.
Israel’s action was a response to an unprecedented attack by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on October 7 which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, according to an AFP tally.
Gunmen also seized around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, of whom 29 are believed to have died.
Israel’s air strikes and a ground offensive since have killed at least 27,840 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. — AFP
These were the details of the news New laws give police in England power to arrest masked protesters for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
