More than 100 lawyers sign letter in support of solicitor trying to force Hamas deproscription

It cites his identification by various politicians and negative media reports as reasons that “his offices were inundated with threats of violence and death”.

Additionally, the letter claims Ansari was “targeted, stopped, detained, [and] questioned” by the North Wales Police in August, and expresses concern that the police “have refused to provide any reason for their actions”.

However, it later states that “counsel for the North Wales Police submitted… that there was a distinction between a solicitor and a solicitor acting for proscribed organisations, with it being reasonable to explore the legitimate political beliefs of the latter”.

Ansari has raised over £33,000 from donations in order to cover legal costs of “challenging the police seizure of my work phone”.

The letter goes on to say that “any exercise of the right to apply for deproscription – and appeal any refusal of such an application – will inherently involve groups who, at least according to the Secretary of State, were ‘concerned in terrorism’.”

It argues that the Law Society’s alleged failure to speak up in solidarity with Ansari is “an egregious failure of the UK to comply with its duties” under the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of the Profession of the Lawyer.

The signatories request that the recipients “publicly come to the defence of lawyers representing their clients – any clients – and in particular Mr Ansari.”

Ansari brought the original case through his firm Riverway Law, which was absorbed in July as the legal arm of “movement-embedded legal organisation” Riverway to the Sea.

Riverway’s original motion claims that Hamas poses “no threat to the UK people”. As noted previously by the JC, 18 British citizens were killed during the Hamas-orchestrated October 7 massacre.

Other revelations about Ansari included that he eulogised Ismail Haniyeh, the former leader of Hamas, on X last year, and that he protested in support of Hezbollah as a 24-year-old in 2006, several years before the group was proscribed.

Riverway Law has posted on Instagram, calling married JC columnists Joshua Rozenberg and Melanie Phillips “propagandists for the atrocity of our time”, and liked a comment under the post calling Phillips a “hateful zio”.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick told the Daily Telegraph that Riverway “isn’t a law firm committed to upholding the rule of law – they are naked activists who seek to weaponise it”.