LONDON: British-Pakistani teacher and activist Marieha Hussain has expressed relief after being honourably acquitted of a racially aggravated public order offence over the poster with the word “coconut”. However, she questioned the role of British institutions in prosecuting her for criticising former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
Last week, a judge at Westminster Magistrates' Court ruled that Hussain was not guilty of the racially aggravated public order offence and that she was honest and consistent in her account and opinions.
In November last year, the Metropolitan Police released a photograph of its “coconut” poster – taken during a march for Palestine and first posted by pro-Zionist blog Harry's Place – asking the public for help in identifying it.
Immediately afterwards, she was charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), lost her job, her family's address was published by right-wing media and her home was under siege, resulting in her entire family being harassed.
Speaking to The News and Geo News at his home in High Wycombe, Hussain said he had no regrets about carrying the poster, would continue to campaign for justice for Palestinians and would never hesitate to speak out against racism and Islamophobia.
She said: “I made the poster myself, showing a palm tree with coconuts, Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman underneath. This meant that Rishi and Suella were coconuts, brown on the outside and white on the inside. The tribunal accepted that it was a political criticism and not racist. The poster was a criticism of his racist and Islamophobic policies which were harmful only to black people, dark-skinned people, immigrants and particularly Muslim communities.”
Hussain, a mother of two young children who was dragged into court last week while nine months pregnant, said the whole experience had been extremely stressful for her and her family.
She shared: “It was very stressful. We were scared and frightened. We were under siege from the racist right-wing media. Our lawyers and the campaign team at the charity CAGE were very supportive. They understood that we had done nothing wrong and that we would win in the end.”
Right-wing media published addresses and photographs of her father, who is a consultant dermatologist for the National Health Service (NHS), and set up camps outside his home. “The racist media spread his photos and shared details of my parents’ home. My father was not at the UK event at the time of the protest, but he was attacked. My whole family came together and supported me. When the judge declared me not guilty, we all became emotional, cried and hugged each other in court.”
Hussain said the Israeli government and lobbies working for it campaigned for his arrest and prosecution to suppress pro-Palestinian voices.
“During the trial it emerged that it was a pro-Zionist, anti-Palestine blog called Harry's Place, run from Washington DC, that first posted my photo with the sign and then the Metropolitan Police used that photo to hunt me down. Israel put pressure on me to have me charged and convicted. The London police quickly acted against me and used hate speech laws against me to put me on trial. They were unable to produce a single witness to confirm that my sign was racist in nature.”
Hussain lamented that “institutional racism has grown in the United Kingdom over the years and his case is a great example of this.”
She said: “For the last ten years I have been protesting at the Palestine marches, so I was aware of how things work. We understood how double standards work and how the laws are harshly against ethnic minorities, especially Muslims. I made the banner against Rishi and Suella because they spoke out against Muslims, ethnic minorities, homeless people and vulnerable people. I have no regrets.”
At trial, the prosecution claimed that “coco” was a well-known racial slur.[It has] “It has a very clear meaning: You may be brown on the outside, but you are white on the inside,” said the prosecutor, Jonathan Bryan. “In other words, you are a ‘race traitor’: you are less brown or black than you should be.”
However, Hussain maintained that “bogeyman” was “common language, particularly in our culture” and, in reference to the poster, a form of political criticism. “It’s something we grew up with,” he said. “It was used very easily… I remember my father calling me bogeyman when I was a teenager.”
District Judge Vanessa Lloyd ruled that the poster was “in the genre of political satire” and that the prosecution had “failed to establish on a criminal basis that it was abusive.”
Hussain said she has no doubt she would never have been prosecuted if she were not a Muslim, Pakistani woman of brown origin. “This case speaks of double standards and hypocrisy. Millionaire Tory donor Frank Hester said on record that he wanted to shoot respected, anti-racist MP Diane Abbot, but the prosecution did nothing and has been silent for months, but the police and the prosecution put me through hell in a matter of minutes. I will not give up.”
CAGE International said Marieha Hussain's not guilty verdict by District Judge Vanessa Lloyd was a return to sanity after what was always a politically motivated trial aimed at silencing criticism of politicians complicit in the “Gaza genocide.”
Naila Ahmed, Campaigns Director at CAGE International, said: “Marieha’s ordeal highlights the sinister methods the British state uses to silence and intimidate the free speech of its own citizens, in order to protect a foreign nation’s genocidal war. Marieha endured months of harassment, including an abusive police interview, late-night police visits and a media smear campaign that led to her losing her job and temporarily relocating her family for safety. It is outrageous that a heavily pregnant mother has had to stand trial for expressing a political opinion. This process has been vindictive from the start. It will be a huge relief to Marieha and her family that this ordeal is over and she can put this all behind her.
“The state is increasingly exploring insidious ways to prosecute activists, especially those who act on behalf of Palestine. We hope that this verdict will put an end to such politicized prosecutions and, especially, lead to the dropping of charges against the 6 CAGE members, accused of the same alleged crime. However, we will not remain silent in exposing the war crimes and genocide being committed by the Israeli apartheid state: Palestine will be free.”
