Raza Husain
 Raza Husain     ( barrister) | |
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| Born | October 1968 |
Syed Raza Husain is a British lawyer described as "a renowned public law barrister who specialises in immigration and civil liberties work. He routinely appears before the UK Supreme Court and is called upon by high net worth individuals and publicly funded claimant clients. His practice also includes an international dimension with appearances in European courts, as well as in the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. He has recently garnered attention for his work challenging the Home Office's policy of deporting some migrants to Rwanda."[1]
Contents
Palestine Action
At a hearing on Friday 4 July 2025, Huda Ammori, the co-founder of Palestine Action, asked the High Court in London to temporarily block the UK government from banning the group as a terrorist organisation before a potential legal challenge against the decision to proscribe it under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The Home Office opposed bids to delay the ban from becoming law, and the potential launch of a legal challenge against the decision.
Authoritarian abuse of power
Raza Husain KC, for Ms Ammori, told Mr Justice Chamberlain:
- “This is the first time in our history that a direct action civil disobedience group, which does not advocate for violence, has been sought to be proscribed as terrorists.”
- The barrister said that his client had been “inspired” by a long history of direct action in the UK, “from the suffragettes, to anti-apartheid activists, to Iraq war activists”.
- Quoting Ms Ammori, the barrister continued that the group had “never encouraged harm to any person at all” and that its goal “is to put ourselves in the way of the military machine”.
- He continued: “We ask you, in the first instance, to suspend until July 21 what we say is an ill-considered, discriminatory and authoritarian abuse of statutory power which is alien to the basic tradition of the common law and is contrary to the Human Rights Act.”
- The barrister later said that the Home Office “has still not sufficiently articulated or evidenced a national security reason that proscription should be brought into effect now”.
- He added: “The discretion to proscribe an organisation must be exercised with respect to the central concern of the Act, which plainly is not to simply proscribe any organisation which fits the definition.”
- Mr Husain later said that to proscribe an organisation, the Home Secretary “has got to believe that the organisation is concerned in terrorism”.
- “If you get isolated conduct associated with Palestine Action that meets the statutory definition, that is not enough because you have got to look at the organisation as a whole,” he said.
Mr Justice Chamberlain said that if he decided to temporarily block the ban, he could do that with either an “interim declaration” or by making an injunction “requiring the Secretary of State to make an order”.
Further hearing
A further hearing to decide whether Ms Ammori will be given the green light to challenge the decision to ban Palestine Action is expected to be heard later in July 2025.[2]
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:"We accept of course that it is Draconian: and deliberately so." | blog post | 8 July 2025 | Craig Murray | "Appeal Court judge Lady Carr congratulated all the lawyers effusively on being brief and helpful, and said the case 'upheld the best traditions of the bar'. What it upheld, of course, was a further step into authoritarianism. This was the next morning: an 83-year-old priest arrested for supporting Palestine Action." |
| Document:Palestine Action ban would be ‘authoritarian abuse’ of power, High Court told | Article | 4 July 2025 10:37:00 | Press Association Jess Glass Callum Parke Nina Massey | On Friday July 4, the High Court heard a challenge to the order, and Judge Martin Chamberlain ruled against Huda Ammori, meaning the proscription of Palestine Action is upheld and will come into force at midnight. |
