Hamas is a 'barbaric' terrorist organisation, says Home Secretary as group uses ECHR to challenge terror status
10 April 2025, 08:18
Terror group Hamas has launched a legal bid to be removed from the UK’s list of proscribed terrorist organisations.
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An appeal, submitted on behalf of Hamas by London-based law firm Riverway Law, submitted a 106-page legal application to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, appealing against the Government’s designation of the organisation as terrorists.
Ms Cooper told LBC this morning: “Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It was a barbaric terrorist attack on October 7. Hamas has long been a terrorist organisation.
“We maintain our view about the barbaric nature of this organisation.”
It claims the ban breaches Hamas supporters’ human rights under the ECHR by ‘unlawfully restricting’ their freedom of speech and right to protest.
It says Hamas poses “no threat to the UK people”, and that banning it breaches Britain’s obligations under international law to be “not complicit in a genocide.”
Dame Priti Patel outlawed Hamas in its entirety by adding its political wing to the list. The military arm of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, were proscribed two decades earlier.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the claim should be dismissed, saying: “The fact lawyers are seriously arguing our weak human rights laws could be twisted to protect murderous terrorists shows why these laws are no longer fit for purpose.
“Human rights laws should protect our citizens, not foreign criminals and possibly even terrorists.”
The effort to have Hamas removed from the list is being fronted by Dr Mousa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’s head of international relations and its legal office.
The lawyers involved in the case have said Hamas has not paid them or the experts and lawyers who provided evidence for its submission, as it was illegal to receive funds from a group designated as a terrorist organisation.
Riverway Law said on social media that “nothing in these posts invites any individual to support, or express support for any proscribed organisation” listed by the Home Secretary under the Terrorism Act 2000. It said: “These posts are only to provide a summary of the legal application to summarise its significance.”
