UPDATE: In reaction to the unusual last-minute change in judges, Avaaz have launched a petition calling on the Ministry of Justice to provide an explanation to the public.
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It’s 2025, and our ‘functioning democratic society’ provided a freezing cold ‘overflow’ court at the High Court, in which observers and press strained to hear the almost indecipherable sound from Court 5 through two TV monitors, one of which provides no sound at all.
The proceedings were due to begin yesterday for three days, but the lead barrister for Huda Ammori (Palestine Action co-founder) has been taken ill, and an extra day was given to allow further preparation for barristers not originally expecting to speak.
Everything was set for Mr. Justice Chamberlain to hear the case at the High Court, he having been involved so far, very familiar with the issues, and who gave permission for the judicial review to go ahead. Indeed, he was in court yesterday giving his ruling on potential reporting restrictions.
But later in the day it was suddenly announced that the Ministry for Justice (no Orwellian reference intended) had replaced Chamberlain with a new panel of three – Dame Victoria Sharp, Karen Steyn and Jonathan Swift – a not quite unprecedented but certainly unusual move.
THE THREE NEWLY APPOINTED JUDGES:
In 2021, Dame Victoria Sharp sent nine ‘Insulate Britain’ climate protesters to prison without trial or jury. At that time, Real Media revealed her family connections to the fossil fuel industry and her twin brother’s relationship with Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson and Tufton Street, as well as his controversial appointment to BBC chairman. Since then, journalist Matt Kennard has revealed Sharp’s connections with Trevor Chinn, head of lobbyists BICOM, which has been one of Palestine Action’s targets. Chinn is also a major funder of both Conservative and Labour Friends Of Israel.
In June 2025, Karen Steyn was one of three judges considering the Al-Haq ‘arms to Israel’ challenge, where alongside Sharp, she found that the government’s decision to allow F-35 component exports to Israel was lawful. Part of their reasoning was that the court has no power to consider the merit of a government decision, only its legality, and that it HAD properly considered the scale of civilian harm in Gaza and expert reports on International Human Rights law violations.
The third judge, Jonathan Swift, was previously a government lawyer and among notable controversial rulings was his rejection of Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition, and his siding with the government over deportations to Rwanda. While representing the government over a period of three years Mr. Swift was paid nearly a million pounds for trying to curtail the right to protest in Parliament Square, and for challenging a Freedom Of Information request to reveal government correspondence with Prince Charles.
Due to the sound problems in the High Court, we were forced to abandon trying to follow the important legal arguments, and instead witnessed large numbers of police arresting the hundred or more quiet dignified protesters outside who had gathered with banners that ‘appeared to demonstrate support for a proscribed organisation’ – the latest in a series of Lift The Ban actions all around the country organised by Defend Our Juries. There have been nearly two and a half thousand people arrested for this ‘crime’ under terrorism legislation.
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Only a small proportion of those arrested have so far been charged, and whether their cases will proceed may depend on the outcome of this judicial review. The hearing continues tomorrow and next Tuesday, but a judgement is not expected before the new year.
If Palestine Action remains proscribed, new proposals for radical changes in the UK justice system leaked yesterday might also mean that banner-holding protesters may go through a fast-track process in courts with no possibility of trials by jury.
It’s ironic that on the same day the idea was floated that most defendants won’t be allowed a jury, at least a few defendants get to choose their own judges (as long as they hold the levers of power).
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More than 150 arrests were made this afternoon and early evening at the Lift The Ban protest.
