---
title: "British Barrister, 94, Is Arrested for Supporting Banned Group Palestine Action"
description: "Margaret Owen, a Jewish human rights lawyer, told Al Jazeera she had been trying to get arrested for months"
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-10-01T11:42:27Z
modified: 2026-10-02T01:21:03Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/british-barrister-94-is-arrested-for-supporting-banned-group-b2ae95
language: en
tags: ["palestine", "protest", "law", "israel", "terrorism", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# British Barrister, 94, Is Arrested for Supporting Banned Group Palestine Action

*Margaret Owen, a Jewish human rights lawyer, told Al Jazeera she had been trying to get arrested for months*

By rews desk · October 1, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/british-barrister-94-is-arrested-for-supporting-banned-group-b2ae95

## In brief

- Margaret Owen, 94, was arrested at a Liverpool protest in support of Palestine Action on Sept. 27
- More than 50 people were detained at the demonstration, organized by the campaign group Defend Our Juries
- Owen told Al Jazeera she had attended about a dozen protests seeking arrest since the group was banned in July 2025
- More than 2,200 people have been arrested for alleged support of Palestine Action since the ban
- Amnesty International called the Liverpool arrests a shameful attack on freedom of speech

Margaret Owen, a 94-year-old Jewish human rights barrister, was arrested on Saturday at a protest in Liverpool held in support of Palestine Action, the activist group Britain banned as a terrorist organization last year.

Ms. Owen was one of more than 50 people detained at the Sept. 27 demonstration, which was organized by Defend Our Juries, a campaign against the proscription, according to [the International Business Times](https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/94-year-old-barrister-arrested-palestine-action-protest-liverpool-1823049). More than 250 protesters had sat outside a conference center in the city, and footage from the demonstration showed elderly and disabled protesters being detained. The BBC [reported the arrests](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c933kx42np4xo), which Amnesty International called a “shameful attack on freedom of speech.”

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ms. Owen, a friend of the late mother of Ed Miliband, now Britain’s energy secretary, said she had spent months trying to get arrested. She has attended about a dozen protests in London wearing a sign reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.” A placard with the same words has hung in a window of her home since July 2025, when the government proscribed Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act, making expressions of support for the group a criminal offense.

Enforcement of the ban has been broad. More than 2,200 people had been arrested by January for alleged support of the group, many of them for carrying placards or attending demonstrations, according to an analysis by a [legal scholar at the United Kingdom Constitutional Law Association](https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/2026/01/12/paul-oconnell-anticipatory-repression-and-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/). Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, called the ban a [“disturbing” misuse](https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/07/uk-palestine-action-ban-disturbing-misuse-uk-counter-terrorism-legislation) of counterterrorism legislation.

The police force behind the Liverpool operation told the BBC it had made “detailed and co-ordinated plans ahead of such events to ensure it can apply this consistently, fairly and proportionately,” and said not everyone present at the protest had committed a criminal offence.