A British court on Friday tossed a terror-related charge against Kneecap frontman Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh after the Irish musician’s lawyer successfully argued that prosecutors missed their filing deadline by a day.
The 27-year-old rapper, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged for waving a Hezbollah flag during a concert in London in May. The Lebanese Shia Islamist political party is recognized as a terror network in the U.K. and expressing support for the group is forbidden.
Kneecap says they back Palestinian independence in the Middle East, but deny advocating for any terror groups. Mo Chara had claimed the prosecution against him was a politically motivated effort to silence the band’s support for those affected by the ongoing war in Gaza.
“We will not be silent,” Mo Chara said outside the courthouse after the charges against him were dropped. “As people from Ireland, we know oppression, colonialism, famine and genocide.”
Kneecap last month postponed its U.S. tour, which was set to being with a series of shows at the Rooftop at Pier 17 in lower Manhattan next week.
The band apologized to fans for canceling its 15 shows, but expressed their intentions to play in the U.S. once Mo Chara’s legal woes concluded.
“Once we win our court case, which we will, we promise to embark on an even bigger tour to all of your great heads,” the group said on Instagram.
Kneecap is a hip-hop trio that formed in Belfast in 2017. They perform in English and Irish. In a GQ magazine story published in January, the band was credited with “leading West Belfast’s Irish-language revolution.”
With News Wire Services
