Kneecap rapper Liam Og O hAnnaidh will not face a terror trial after High Court rejected a CPS appeal against the decision to throw out the case.
The rapper, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was accused of displaying a flag in support of proscribed terror organisation Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, on November 21 2024.
But the case was thrown out in September last year, with chief magistrate Paul Goldspring ruling the proceedings were ‘instituted unlawfully’.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) appealed against the decision at the High Court at a hearing in January, with the Kneecap rapper opposing the appeal.
In a judgment today, two judges at the High Court upheld the decision and dismissed the CPS appeal.
Judge Goldspring had agreed with O hAnnaidh’s lawyers that prosecutors needed to seek the Attorney General’s permission to charge the rapper before informing him on May 21 that he would be charged with a terror offence.
This permission was sought and given the following day, which the court heard meant the charge fell outside the six-month time frame in which criminal charges against a defendant can be brought.
Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mr Justice Linden, said in today’s decision that ‘the judge was right to hold that he had no jurisdiction to try any summary only offence alleged to have been committed on that date’.
Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who goes under the stage name, Mo Chara, is seen arriving at Westminster Magistrates’ Court before a hearing earlier in the case
O hAnnaidh with his fellow kneecap rappers Naoise O Caireallain and J.J. O Dochartaigh
He said: ‘The respondent has not been tried for his alleged conduct on September 21 2025 and will not be tried.
‘He has not been convicted, and he has not been acquitted.’
O hAnnaidh told a press conference after the judgment that the band would ‘continue to use whatever platform we have to talk about Gaza’, saying the band has ‘lost gigs’ and been ‘restricted’ as a result of the court proceedings.
‘We don’t give a f*** about the repercussions anymore,’ the rapper added.
O hAnnaidh said in a separate statement provided through his lawyers: ‘I owe eternal gratitude to my legal team, who left no stone unturned in ensuring justice was upheld.
‘This entire process was never about me, never about any threat to the public and never about ”terrorism”, a word used by the British Government to discredit people you oppress both in Ireland and across the world.
‘It was always about Palestine and about what happens if you dare to speak up. About what happens if you can reach large groups of people and expose their hypocrisy. I will not be silent. Kneecap will not be silent.’
In the 13-page decision, Lord Edis and Mr Justice Linden their decision ‘turned on a very narrow and technical legal issue and has nothing to do with whether the respondent committed the offence set out in the charge’.
Lord Justice Edis said that the proceedings against the rapper were ‘instituted’ on May 21 2025, rather than at a later date in the time limit.
Videos emerged of a Kneecap gig at the O2 Forum Kentish Town in London in November 2024 where one of the band members allegedly shouted ‘up Hamas, up Hezbollah’, and was draped in a flag said to be in support of Hezbollah
He continued: ‘It follows that no written charge was issued within six months of 21 September 2025 and the judge was right to hold that he had no jurisdiction to try any summary only offence alleged to have been committed on that date.
‘It is a matter of concern that a charge which both the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General considered met both parts of the full code test for crown prosecutors will never now be determined.
‘There was, they decided, a realistic prospect of conviction and the prosecution was in the public interest.
‘We have not investigated the reasons for this failure and nor do we seek to attribute blame.
‘That is not because these circumstances are not worthy of consideration but because they are irrelevant to our decision.’
Following the decision, a CPS spokesperson said: ‘The High Court has clarified how the law applies to the issuing of written charges in summary offences where Attorney General permission was required for the Director of Public Prosecutions to consent to a prosecution.
‘We accept the judgment and will update our processes accordingly.’