Tuesday, 3 September 2024

The arrest of journalist Sarah Wilkinson

 

Sarah Wilkinson

Sarah Wilkinson is one of two journalists who have recently been arrested for posting material about the war in Gaza. The other journalist is Richard Medhurst. Both of them were charged under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and arrested by counter-terrorism officers for "allegedly expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organization."

Both of them deny doing so and say they have been targeted by the British police for reporting on Israel's war in Gaza in an attempt to silence critical voices and restrict reporting. Medhurst was arrested on a plane while Sarah Wilkinson was arrested at home by a large group of police officers and taken to a police station. Sarah says that her house was ransacked and property and money confiscated.  She alleges that the police wouldn't show her a search warrant and scattered her mother's ashes that were in the loft. She alleges that she was initially denied access to a solicitor and access to her medication for Crohn's disease.

Sarah also alleges that at the police station she was asked to provide personal details of her Palestinian contacts and their locations. She says that she refused to do so because she suspected that these details would be passed to the Israeli’s

At the police station, she claims that the police asked her why she thought the Palestinians were better than white people. She told the police this was a deliberately racist question. She alleges that items that were confiscated from her home, including her passport, were not listed by the police who she says, also hid property in her home. Sarah said that her bail conditions are so restrictive that she's effectively living under house arrest.  Is this further evidence of how Britain is creeping its way into a police state? 

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