Man arrested over online post linked to proscribed organisation Hamas

A man has been arrested as part of an investigation by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command into online posts related to the proscribed terrorist group Hamas.

On Tuesday, 4 June, Counter Terrorism Policing received a public referral in relation to online posts allegedly showing support for Hamas - a proscribed terrorist organisation. The matter was referred to specialist officers in the national Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit for initial assessment of the posts and the matter was then passed to detectives within the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command for further investigation.

On Wednesday, 12 June, a 43-year-old man was arrested in west London on suspicion of showing support to a terrorist organisation, contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act, 2000. He was taken into police custody and officers also carried out a search at an address in west London as part of the investigation.

Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter TerrorismCommand, said: “Ever since the terrible attacks in Israel last October, and the subsequent conflict, there has been a significant increase in the amount of extremist and terrorist material being referred to us by the public.

“Each and every referral gets assessed by specialist officers and anything that is considered a potential terrorism offence here in the UK will get passed on for further investigation. From that investigation, if and where we find evidence of a crime being committed, then we’ll look to identify, arrest and bring the person responsible to justice.”

The man was subsequently released from police custody and has been bailed to a date in September, with enquiries ongoing.

Anyone wishing to report extremist or terrorist content can do so online via: www.gov.uk/report-terrorism

Further information:

The Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) is a national Counter Terrorism Policing unit based within the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, which is dedicated to identifying terrorist and extremist material online. It works with service providers to seek the removal of such material. If material breaches UK terrorism law, police will carry out an investigation.

We encourage people who see material online that they are concerned may be terrorist or extremist to report it to the team at: gov.uk/report-terrorism