Former SDLP leader Colum Eastwood is set to challenge the basis for prosecuting him for taking part in an unnotified parade in Northern Ireland, a court has heard.
It comes as the Foyle MP told the media after appearing in court that he won’t stop “standing up for the people of Gaza”.
The charge facing the politician relates to a pro-Palestine rally held in Derry last February which was held at Derry’s War Memorial in the Diamond area of the city centre.
After speeches, participants walked to Derry’s Guildhall.
Under legislation here, organisers of parades and processions must obtain permission from the Parades Commission in advance.
Mr Eastwood, along with several others charged over the same event, appeared before Londonderry Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning.
Outside the court a group of supporters gathered, with some holding placards and wearing t-shirts with the slogan “Protesting genocide is not a crime”
Solicitor Ciaran Shiels, representing Mr Eastwood, said he was “at a loss to understand” why the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has decided to prosecute his client over his attendance at the rally.
He said the rally was peaceful and did not cause any obstruction.
The court was told that he and two of the other defendants are to ask Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) to review the basis for pursuing the case.
The two other defendants requesting the review are university lecturer Goretti Horgan and fellow pro-Palestinian activist Davina Pulis.
“Other solicitors agree with that way forward,” Mr Shiels said.
Mr Shiels told the court: “We’re at a loss to understand how this short procession from the Diamond to the Guildhall, which was totally peaceful and caused no obstruction to the public, and we are not aware of any complaint from the public, and in respect of 50,000 civilians being bombed to pieces, including 20,000 children, we are at a loss why the PPS believe it’s in the interests of justice to prosecute any of these individuals.”
Mr Shiels said when a similar short procession took place by family members of the Bloody Sunday victims in respect of the case of Soldier F last year, no prosecutions took place.
Judge Heaney adjourned the case for four weeks.
Outside the court, Mr Eastwood said he would not be deterred from “standing up” for the people of Gaza.
“The people who are standing here today as defendants respect the law, we respect this court,” he told reporters outside Derry Magistrates’ Court.
“But, actually, we were marching and protesting, and have been for years now, against a bigger, a more important law being broken, and we are seeing the Israeli government in the dock in the highest courts in the world because they are committing genocide in Gaza.
“They are right now deliberately starving children. There are trucks of aid lined up at the border of Gaza that can’t get in.
“They have just announced that they’re going to, as we’ve always known they were going to do, fully occupy the Gaza Strip and try to rid it of the Palestinian people.
“That is the crime that we and many other people in this city were protesting on that evening and it is, frankly, bizarre to anybody with any basic understanding of the justice system why the PPS would be deciding that this was the thing that they should be focused on.
“I frankly, given the amount of work I’ve done with victims over the years and other people, can’t understand how this seems to be a priority for them.
“Others can speak for themselves, but I don’t think anybody who’s a defendant in this case will ever be put off standing up for the people of Gaza and standing up for the rule of law around protecting people from a genocide, one that is being committed live on our TV screens and global powers are doing nothing other than enable it by providing the Israeli government with weapons.”
Eastwood insisted the parading laws in Northern Ireland had not been designed for events such as the one he had participated in last February.
“It’s not for me to determine how this law is adjudicated upon, but it was set up because certain Orange Order bands were determined to march past nationalist estates and end up creating mayhem on the streets,” he said.
“This law was not written and was not brought into law to stop people protesting genocide. That’s not what this was for.
“Nobody was put out on Shipquay Street (in Derry) on that day. In fact, people were beeping their horns in support of us because I know – and people standing here do a lot of door-knocking and talking to people in this city – people are absolutely opposed to what’s happening in Gaza and will stand with whoever has to stand up against that.”
In a similar case in 2023, when Eastwood joined families of those killed on Bloody Sunday in 1972 in an impromptu walk from the Diamond area to Derry’s courthouse, the PPS decided against prosecuting those involved after determining it would not be in the public interest.
The former SDLP leader drew a comparison with that decision as he criticised the PPS move to prosecute in relation to the Gaza event.
“The PPS have some bizarre mechanism it seems for deciding when a previous case, just like this one, was deemed not to be in the interest of justice to prosecute, now this is for some reason,” he said.
“That’s a question that they’re going to have to answer, but I think the court will have a view on that, and it strikes me as a very bizarre decision-making process.”
Mickey McKinney, whose brother William was killed on Bloody Sunday, accompanied Eastwood into court on Tuesday in a show of solidarity.
Co-accused Goretti Horgan told reporters that it was her “duty” to protest against what was happening in Gaza.
