AN activist has blasted “draconian legislation” which led to the arrest of a protester showing support for Palestine Action.
Notorious protester Sean Clerkin, 64, was arrested in Glasgow’s Nelson Mandela Place on Friday after attending a demonstration held against the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist group.
He was detained by officers after holding a sign that read “Genocide in Palestine, time to take action".
It comes after 46 arrests were made earlier this week at another protest demonstrating against Palestine Action being designated a proscribed terror group.
Mick Napier, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign's official spokesperson, spoke to The National at the scene and condemned the arrest, adding: “The man arrested carried a piece of paper that said on it ‘Genocide in Palestine. Time to take action’.
“He was protesting against an earlier arrest of somebody wearing a t-shirt with the same wording and that’s the wording that now gets you arrested under the Terrorism Act.
“We’ve now reached a stage where people can be jailed for a very long period of time for expressing opposition to the genocide in Palestine and calling for action.
“We don’t know how far away those two words have to be before you avoid arrest and draconian sentences under this new legislation.”
Video footage from the scene shows Clerkin being surrounded by police officers and put into a police van after standing with the sign next to Napier, who was speaking through a megaphone.
Chants of “let him go” could be heard from activists as Clerkin was arrested.
The protest dispersed quickly after Clerkin was escorted away but a number of officers stayed to keep watch and several members of the public stopped to ask what was happening.
One woman spoke to The National to say she had been considering attending the demonstration with a sign saying “stop the murderous actions in Palestine”, but she feared she might be arrested.
“I was quite afraid, I shamefully have to say, because I don’t want to be in the cells,” she said.
“Having said that, part of me wishes that I did [attend], because my sign says ‘stop the murderous actions in Palestine’. That is not saying, as preposterous as we all know it is, ‘I support Palestine Action’. So how can they conflate them altogether?
“It’s very disturbing. God knows what will happen at the national demo. There will be a lot of people holding placards and they can’t arrest everyone. It’s a circus.”
Hundreds of people are expected to attend a pro-Palestine demonstration in Edinburgh on Saturday against the UK Government and media’s “complicity” in the genocide in Gaza.
The protest, organised by the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee (GGEC), was called in response to a joint report published earlier this week by The National and Declassified UK.
Clerkin previously held up a banner which read "England Out of Scotland" at the SNP conference in Edinburgh, and in 2018, he was booted out of the party for taking a stance against the controversial Growth Commission report, which embarrassed the SNP by suggesting that an independent Scotland would need to impose austerity for the first 10 years after leaving the UK.
Clerkin also made a complaint to the police that led to Operation Branchform, the probe which investigated the finances of the [[SNP]] which led to the arrests of Peter Murrell, Nicola Sturgeon and Colin Beattie.
Sturgeon and Beattie were later cleared, while Murrell was charged.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Officers are currently in attendance at Nelson Mandela Place in Glasgow where a protest group has gathered.
"A 64-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an offence under the Terrorism Act for displaying a sign expressing support for a proscribed organisation.
"Officers remain at the scene."
