Kneecap have announced details of the high profile legal team they have hired to represent band member Liam O’Hanna, who is due in Westminster Magistrates Court tomorrow after being charged with a terror offence for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a London gig last year.
O’Hanna’s court hearing takes place ten days before Kneecap are due to play at Glastonbury Festival. Both the band and the Love Music Hate Racism organisation have urged people to show their support for O’Hanna outside the court hearing. Meanwhile, inside the courtroom six high profile lawyers will be working on the case who together have expertise in human rights, free speech and criminal defence law.
“The British establishment is conducting a campaign against Kneecap which is to be fought in Westminster Magistrates court”, the band say in a statement. “We are ready for this fight. We are proud to have a strong legal team with us. We are on the right side of history. You are not. We will fight you in your court. We will win”.
The legal team includes Gareth Peirce - who previously defended the Birmingham Six and the Guilford Four, who were wrongly convicted in the 1970s after being accused of involvement in two bombings connected to the IRA - and international human rights lawyer Darragh Mackin - who represented families in the 2024 inquest into the fatal fire at the Stardust club in Dublin back in 1981.
Also working on the case are Jude Bunting, described as an “expert in freedom of expression”, who has appeared for national and international media outlets, and Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, who recently appeared before the International Court Of Justice on behalf of South Africa in its case against Israel in relation to the conflict in Gaza.
Kneecap have always courted controversy, but have been very much in the spotlight since their Coachella performance earlier this year, where they displayed strongly pro-Palestine and anti-Israel messaging onto screens. That move has been both commended and condemned - by different groups - with critics calling on other festivals, including Glastonbury, to cancel their performances.
In the wake of the Coachella set, footage emerged of the band seemingly expressing support for Hamas and Hezbollah at a gig in London last year. With both those organisations being proscribed terrorist groups in the UK, expressing support for them is a criminal offence.
Despite the band putting out a statement insisting that they do not in fact support either Hamas or Hezbollah, critics have used that footage to justify why venues and festivals should boycott the band. The footage also prompted a police investigation resulting in the terror offence charge that will be considered in court tomorrow.
When playing at London’s Wide Awake festival last month, the band told their audience that “we’re all going to gather outside the Westminster court to show support” on the day of O’Hanna’s hearing. Last week the Love Music Hate Racism group also encouraged people to show their support for Kneecap outside the court hearing.
“Love Music Hate Racism stands with Kneecap against the attempts to silence them for speaking out for Gaza”, the group said in a statement. “Anyone trying to silence them, or get them pulled from shows, is on the wrong side of history”.
“LMHR has always attempted to use the power of music to unite people against hate and division”, it went on. “We stand with Kneecap against those directing hate towards the movement for Palestine” and “we call on all to stand with Kneecap and defend Mo Chara on 18 Jun outside Westminster Magistrates Court in London”.