Palestine Action’s co-founder can proceed with a legal challenge against the Government over the group’s ban as a terror organisation, the Court of Appeal has ruled, as it dismissed a Home Office appeal.
Huda Ammori took taking legal action against former home secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws.
The ban, which began on July 5, made membership of, or support for, the direct action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Mr Justice Chamberlain later cleared Ms Ammori to proceed with a challenge over the ban after finding that two arguments put forward on her behalf were “reasonably arguable”.
In September, the Home Office brought a challenge against this decision to the Court of Appeal in London.
At a hearing last month, barristers for the Home Office said Ms Ammori could bring her legal challenge to the Home Secretary and then the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC), rather than the High Court for a “judicial review”.
Lawyers for Ms Ammori said the POAC was not the only suitable place to challenge the lawfulness of a ban.
In a 37-page judgment on Friday, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, sitting with Lord Justice Edis and Lord Justice Lewis, said the process of applying for deproscription and appealing against a refusal at POAC "is intended to deal with another situation".
Baroness Carr said the process "is not intended to be a means of challenging the initial decision to proscribe and does not provide for the removal of the consequences of an initial decision to proscribe an organisation".
She added: "We consider that the fact that judicial review would be a more expeditious means of challenging the order, given the public importance of the issues raised, and, in particular, the fact that persons were facing convictions for acting in ways made criminal as a consequence of the order, justified using judicial review rather than the process of applying for an order to remove Palestine Action from the list of proscribed organisations."
The three Court of Appeal judges also said Huda Ammori can bring two further arguments into the High Court challenge, over whether then-home secretary Yvette Cooper had "regard to relevant considerations" and whether she had complied with her own policies.
Baroness Carr said in the judgment: "There is much to be said for ensuring an authoritative judgment of the High Court on whether or not the order adding Palestine Action to the list of proscribed organisations is lawful.
"It is sensible for all arguable grounds to be considered as soon as possible."
The appeal judges refused a bid from Ms Ammori to appeal on two other grounds.
More than 2,000 people have been arrested since Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation, according to campaign group Defend Our Juries.
This is a breaking news story and is being updated.
