Kneecap supporters gathered outside the High Court on Wednesday as judges heard an appeal by the Crown Prosecution Service over the dismissal of a terrorism case against a member of the rap trio.
Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged in May 2025 with the alleged display of a flag in support of the proscribed terrorist group Hezbollah, at a gig in London in November 2024.
But the case against the Belfast-born rapper, 28, was dismissed in September, on technical grounds.
Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring told Woolwich Crown Court then that the charge was “unlawful” and he had no jurisdiction to try the case – but prosecutors appealed the decision.
Kneecap’s JJ O’Dochartaigh, whose stage name is DJ Provai, and manager Daniel Lambert, attended the High Court appeal in London on Wednesday, greeted by supporters and protesters who gathered outside, as they have done at previous hearings.
After a full day in court, hearing evidence from both sides, Lord Justice Edis and Mr Justice Linden said they would hand down their judgment at a later date.
Why was the original case dismissed?
After O hAnnaidh was charged, he first appeared in court in June. At a second hearing in August, the rapper’s lawyers argued prosecutors should have sought the permission of the attorney general, the chief legal adviser to the Crown, to charge the rapper with a terror offence before informing him of the decision on 21 May last year.
This permission was instead given the following day, which meant it fell outside the six-month timeframe in which criminal charges against a defendant can be brought for this type of offence, the court was told. The gig in question took place on 21 November 2024.
After hearing the evidence, the chief magistrate agreed with O hAnnaidh’s lawyers and found proceedings were “instituted unlawfully”.
The CPS then announced its appeal, with a spokesperson saying they “believe there is an important point of law which needs to be clarified”.
At the High Court on Wednesday, Paul Jarvis KC, for the CPS, said the attorney general’s permission was in place before O hAnnaidh’s first court appearance on 18 June, which meant the necessary requirements were met.
In court, he said the chief magistrate “fell into error in his interpretation of the law” when he threw out the terrorism case, and added: “These proceedings are and remain valid in law.”
However, Jude Bunting KC, representing O hAnnaidh, said the findings by the chief magistrate in September were “unassailably correct”.
In his own written submissions, he said the answer was “straightforward… the necessary permission and consent were not provided at the time the proceedings were ‘instituted’.”
The CPS appeal is “at odds with the principle that the law should be coherent”, Mr Bunting added.
Kneecap said previously in a post on social media that the decision was “once again… a massive waste of taxpayers’ money, of police time, of court time”.
Who are Kneecap?
Kneecap put out their first single in 2017 and rose to wider prominence in 2024 after the release of their debut album and a semi-biographical film.
In 2024, the band won a discrimination case against the UK government after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch tried to refuse them a £14,250 funding award during her time in government as business secretary.
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Before the High Court hearing, Belfast MPs addressed those showing support for the band outside.
“We will continue to stand with Liam,” said John Finucane, MP for North Belfast. “We will continue to stand on the right side of history.”
“We are in front of a court today because the British government refused to accept the decision from a previous judge to throw this case out,” said Paul Maskey, MP for Belfast West.
The judges said they had been given lots to think about and that a decision will be given at a later date.
