Two pro-Palestine campaigners have vowed to appeal their convictions for breaching protest conditions, calling the verdict a “shocking decision”.
Benjamin Jamal, 62, and Christopher Nineham, 63, were found guilty on Wednesday at Westminster Magistrates’ Court after both were accused of failing to comply with a police condition.
The condition required thousands of protesters who gathered in central London for a rally in January 2025 to stay on Whitehall.
Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Nineham, vice-chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, criticised the decision as they spoke to dozens of supporters outside the court.
Nineham, who called their convictions a “huge setback for civil liberties in this country”, said: “The issue was that the Palestine movement was banned from marching anywhere near the BBC on January 18 2025.
“What made it worse was that we were conditioned not to leave Whitehall… in other words, we were not allowed to march at all in the vicinity of a major establishment institution.”
Nineham then said there is an “ongoing criminalisation of the Palestine movement” and that “people protesting against a genocide are being targeted by a British establishment that is colluding with it”.
Our movement will not be silenced.
— Palestine Solidarity Campaign (@PSCupdates) April 1, 2026
PSC Director @BenJamalpsc speaks outside court after he and @ChrisNineham were found guilty for organising a peaceful protest for Palestine. This decision is shocking and a huge attack on civil liberties in Britain. The fight is not over 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/QjcQD9wwMc
He added: “This case, in fact, should never have been brought because – as numerous videos show – the police ushered us through their lines on the day.
“It is extraordinary, but we are being criminalised. We have been convicted for following police advice. Such is the surreality, such is the absurdity of this.”
Pro-Palestine protesters had planned to gather outside the BBC’s Broadcasting House in Portland Place on January 18 last year, before marching to Whitehall.
The Metropolitan Police - citing fears it would risk the safety of the Jewish community - first imposed conditions preventing the march from gathering near a synagogue in Great Portland Street.
Prosecutors said that Commander Adam Slonecki, who was in charge of policing the protest, was concerned that national demonstrations “had a severely adverse impact on a significant portion of the Jewish community who had become fearful of attending the synagogues during protest”.
The trial heard that protesters were later banned from marching because police and organisers were unable to agree on a route.
The court heard that, in a meeting with police on January 8, 2025, Jamal said his group were willing to find compromises but would not accept what he said were “unacceptable political pressure by people who have got a pernicious agenda”.
A recording of a speech Jamal made to protesters on Whitehall was played in court.
He said then: “We, the Palestine Solidarity Movement, decide where we protest not the Board of Deputies, not the Chief Rabbi, not the Community Security Trust, not any Zionist group that has supported Israel’s genocide and its 76 years of apartheid.
“Our intention today was to march to the BBC. We wanted to do so because of its complicity, through the bias of its reporting, a bias confirmed in a recent investigation.”
The court heard that Jamal said a delegation of the leaders of six groups behind the march’s organising would walk towards the BBC carrying flowers. They intended to place the flowers at the BBC HQ.
Prosecutors said the crowd began to follow Jamal and the others’ lead. Footage played to the court showed people walking towards a police cordon that “eventually buckled under the pressure of large numbers of people moving forward”.
Nineham and Jamal were “beckoned” through a police line twice, leading them to believe their request to amend the conditions had been allowed, the court heard.
Jamal, who was also convicted of two counts of inciting others to breach police conditions, said his and Nineham’s appeals will centre on “how this trial has been conducted”.
He said: “Consider these two basic facts: six days were allocated for this case, the judge allowed the prosecution to take four days to make their case, and did not allow any additional time for defence submission.”
He added: “We know the decisions like today are designed to repress support for the Palestinian struggle for liberation and our campaign to end all UK complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide, it will not succeed.
“This cause remains more important than ever.”
The Standard has approached the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary for comment, as well as the Met Police, for further comment.
The Met said earlier that it hopes the verdicts “encourage all protest organisers, no matter their cause, to understand the importance of co-operating with officers and complying with the lawful decisions they make”.
A spokesperson said: “Where this doesn’t happen, we will use the powers available to us to take the appropriate legal action.”
Among the demonstrators at the march were former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell. Both were pictured at the demonstration and agreed to be interviewed under caution by police.
Mr Corbyn was among the supporters reported to be in court today. Some clapped as Nineham and Jamal left the court.
District Judge Daniel Sternberg handed Jamal a conditional discharge of 18 months. Nineham was handed a conditional discharge of 12 months.
Both men were ordered to pay £7,500 each towards the prosecution’s costs and a £26 victim surcharge.
Defending, Mark Summers KC, said Jamal and Nineham had “given their lives to voluntary service” and “are not in a position to pay anything”. Mr Summers said any amount paid would be “met with donations from the supporting public”.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The convicted criminals Ben Jamal and Chris Nineham have made Londoners’ lives a misery for years with their constant marches.
“They have changed nothing at all thousands of miles away in the Middle East. Instead, they have disfigured our city centres into no-go zones for most ordinary people and especially for British Jews.”
