UK court rejects bid to reinstate ‘terrorism’ charge against Kneecap rapper

Irish rapper Liam O’Hanna welcomes ruling in case he says was ‘never about any threat to the public, never about terrorism’.

British prosecutors have lost an appeal seeking to reinstate a “terrorism” charge against a member of Irish rap group Kneecap accused of waving a Hezbollah flag during a gig in London.

London’s High Court on Wednesday rejected prosecutors’ attempts to challenge a lower court’s decision to throw out the case against Liam O’Hanna in September due to a technical error.

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The decision means the case will not proceed. In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service said the High Court had “clarified how the law applies” to such cases and that it accepted “the judgement and will update our processes accordingly”.

O’Hanna – also known as Liam Og O hAnnaid (his name in Gaeilge, the Irish language) and by the stage name Mo Chara (“My Friend”) – was charged in May of last year with displaying a Hezbollah flag during a November 2024 concert in London, in violation of the United Kingdom’s 2000 Terrorism Act.

Kneecap’s members – who rap in Gaeilge and English and have been outspoken in their condemnation of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – have called the attempted prosecution a “British state witch-hunt”.

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - MARCH 11: Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, aka Mo Chara, of the band Kneecap speaks during a press conference following a High Court ruling which upheld the decision to drop the terrorism case against him on March 11, 2026 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Irish language hip-hop group Kneecap called on supporters to attend the press conference in Belfast on Wednesday as the High Court in London ruled on the Crown Prosecution Service's (CPS) appeal on an earlier decision to throw out terror charges against rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh. Ó hAnnaidh, who performs with Kneecap under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offence after allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town in November 2024. The charge was dropped on a technicality in September 2025, which the CPS has appealed. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) — Liam O’Hanna (Liam Og O hAnnaid) welcomed the ruling during a news conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland [Charles McQuillan/Getty Images]

O’Hanna welcomed the ruling on Wednesday, saying during a news conference in Belfast that the case was “never about me, never about any threat to the public and never about terrorism”.

“It was always about Palestine, about what happens if you dare to speak up, about what happens if you can reach large groups of people and expose their hypocrisy, about the lengths Britain will go to cover up Israeli and US war crimes,” he said.

Cheered by supporters at the event, O’Hanna was joined by Kneecap bandmates JJ O Dochartaigh and Naoise O Caireallain – better known by their respective stage names, DJ Provai and Moglai Bap.

“Your own High Court ruled against you,” O’Hanna added, addressing the UK government.

“The pathetic thing about this whole process is that you falsely tried to label me a terrorist when it is the British government ministers that are arming and assisting a genocide in Gaza, the destruction of Lebanon, and the senseless slaughter of schoolkids in Iran.”