A west London man was arrested for showing support for Hamas on Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police announced in a Thursday statement.
The Met Counter Terrorism Police had been alerted last Tuesday that the 43-year-old man had been expressing support for the proscribed terrorist organization. The man was released from custody and placed on bail until a September court date for violating the 2000 Terrorism Act.
“Ever since the terrible attacks in Israel last October, and the subsequent conflict, there has been a significant increase in the amount of extremist and terrorist material being referred to us by the public," said Met’s Counter Terrorism Command head Commander Dominic Murphy. “Each and every referral gets assessed by specialist officers and anything that is considered a potential terrorism offence here in the UK will get passed on for further investigation. From that investigation, if and where we find evidence of a crime being committed, then we’ll look to identify, arrest and bring the person responsible to justice.”