A student expressed “thinly veiled” support for Hamas in a speech outside her university campus two days after the banned terrorist group led a bloody attack on Israel, a court has heard.
Sarah Cotte, 22, allegedly offered “unconditional solidarity” to the “Palestinian armed resistance” on October 9, 2023, later repeating her views in a WhatsApp group chat.
Opening her trial on Monday, prosecutor Frederick Hookway told jurors: “The prosecution alleges these were thinly veiled references to Hamas, who were credited with having orchestrated the events two days before on October 7, 2023.”
The court heard how Hamas had taken a leading role in an armed attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, targeting military bases, civilian communities and social events.
About 1,195 people were killed, and hundreds more taken hostage, jurors were told.
Hookway said the attack had generated reporting around the world and “provoked renewed focus on this unhappy and long-running conflict between Palestinians and Israelis”.
At the time, Cotte had been a 19-year-old student reading politics, philosophy and economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas), which is part of the University of London.
On October 9, 2023, she allegedly gave a speech to a rally of between 60 and 70 people outside Soas.
At the event, she allegedly expressed “unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian armed resistance”, jurors were told.
Using a megaphone, she said Palestinians had “broken free” and were rising “against the Zionist state which has been bleeding Palestine dry for nearly 80 years”.
In the speech, filmed on the steps of the main entrance of Soas, Cotte went on to refer to a “righteous Palestinian resistance”, the court was told.
At the end of the speech, there were chants of “Intifada revolution”.
Seven days after the Soas speech, Cotte allegedly expressed support for Hamas to some 113 members of a WhatsApp group for the Fight Racism Fight Imperialism (FRFI) society, of which she was a member.
She had been taking part in a discussion on WhatsApp about the views of left-wing commentator Owen Jones.
During the discussion, Cotte wrote: “The only way for innocent people to stop dying is for the Palestinian Resistance to be victorious.”
Cotte was arrested on January 31 2024, the court heard.
Setting out the central issues in the case, Hookway told jurors Cotte was likely to deny that she expressed an opinion which was supportive of Hamas, or that she intended to do so.
Cotte, from Camden, north London, has denied two charges of expressing an opinion or belief in support of a proscribed organisation.
Earlier on Monday, Judge Richard Marks KC told jurors not to be swayed by any personal views or opinions they may have.
The Old Bailey trial continues.
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