SCOTLAND'S top prosecutor is being urged to take a “principled” stand by making clear demonstrators “peacefully” showing support for the banned organised Palestine Action will not be pursued in the courts.
Former first minister Humza Yousaf has written to Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC on the issue, citing “concerns” from United Nations High Commissioner Volker Turk, together with organisations such as Amnesty International and the Scottish Human Rights Commission over the UK Government’s stance.
It comes after Palestine Action was made a proscribed organisation by the UK Government in July 2025, meaning membership or support for the organisation is now a a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Yousaf, however, has written to Bain, urging her to make a “principled, prospective clarification” on this that he said could “guide police practice” while also providing “certainty” to the public, and ensuring “Scotland’s human-rights obligations” are met.
The MSP, who previously served as justice secretary at Holyrood, insisted it would “not be in the public interest to prosecute non-violent individuals whose conduct consists solely of expressing support for Palestine Action, for example, wearing a T-shirt, carrying a placard, or making a peaceful statement that does not incite violence, fundraise, organise, or facilitate criminal acts”.
He noted that human rights group Amnesty International had reported “more than 700 people across the UK, including dozens in Scotland, have been arrested” since the change in status for Palestine Action – with Yousaf saying many of those arrested had been “non-violent”.
While the former first minister stressed he recognised the “independence” of the Lord Advocate he made clear that “restrictions on speech and assembly must be lawful, necessary, and proportionate to a legitimate aim”.
And he argued: “Criminalising a placard or statement that neither incites nor assists violence fails that test and risks misusing counter-terror powers against people of conscience.”
Noting that the Lord Advocate had earlier this year made clear that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute people at Glasgow’s safer drugs consumption unit for simple possession of illegal substances, Yousaf said this gave a “constructive precedent” for action.
And the former SNP leader said: “I believe a similarly framed prosecution statement making it clear that there would be no public interest in prosecuting those have peacefully supported Palestine Action would be appropriate here.”
Amnesty's Scotland programme director Liz Thomson said: "We welcome this intervention from the former First Minister. As we have communicated to the Lord Advocate and chief prosecutors across the UK, people who are not inciting violence, but simply voicing outrage at the ongoing genocide in Gaza aren’t terrorists and there is clearly no public interest in prosecuting them.
"Expressing support for Palestine Action does not meet the threshold set out in international human rights law for restricting the right to peaceful expression.
"The Lord Advocate should urgently explore all possible avenues to ensure that Scotland upholds our international human rights obligations in the face of the UK Government’s excessively broad use of terrorism laws to criminalise peaceful protest."
Since the conflict in Palestine started Yousaf has been a vocal critic of the Israeli government, and has previously described the situation in Gaza as “hell on Earth”.
His parents in law, Maged and Elizabeth El-Nakla, were trapped in the area for four weeks after visiting family when the war broke out after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
The El-Naklas were eventually able to leave through through Egypt with other British nationals, although Mr Yousaf said his father-in-law had become a “shell of a man” following their “traumatic” month in Gaza.
