Verdict Without Evidence: a Clear Miscarriage of Justice in Glasgow Sheriff Court

A miscarriage of justice occurred at Glasgow Sheriff Court on 22/23 December 2025, resulting in a verdict against Mick Napier, a founder member of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC), who was convicted of two “racially aggravated” offences arising out of anti-genocide protests outside Barclays Bank at Argyle Street, Glasgow in 2025.

The sole complainer, Sammy Stein, leader of Glasgow Friends of Israel (GFoI), was jubilant. The pro-Israel, pro-genocide lobby in Scotland have been trying unsuccessfully for 16 years to secure such a result. The conviction was secured despite the complete absence of any form of words uttered that constituted or implied an antisemitic statement, coded reference or insinuation. Comprehensive video footage of the incident exists, is publicly available, and directly contradicts the finding of guilt.

The verdict was delivered by Sheriff John McCormick. A legal appeal has already been lodged. The case must also be judged in the court of public opinion. When bad-faith, politically-driven allegations align with the interests of the state - in repression of dissent, there are barriers in the way of a fair trial.

There is a long history of such now-discredited, politically motivated convictions. In the 84/85 Miners’ Strike hundreds were wrongfully convicted due to intense political pressure from the top and police fabrication of evidence. The Scottish Parliament had to pass a bill to allow a collective pardon decades later. Thatcher notoriously considered the striking miners miners to be "the enemy within" - Starmer clearly considers Palestine solidarity campaigners in the same light today.

Incident and the Ignored Evidence

During proceedings, testimony and video evidence supported the conclusion that Mick Napier’s remarks were directed at Stein in his capacity as Chair and prominent public representative of Glasgow Friends of Israel. Video evidence showed Mr Stein attending the Barclays Bank anti-genocide protest in that role, sometimes accompanied by supporters and sometimes carrying an Israeli flag.

Despite this, Sheriff McCormick rejected the evidence that the remarks were political in nature. One farcical aspect of the case was Stein’s insistence that Glasgow Friends of Israel does not support the Israeli army. On that basis, he claimed that remarks directed at Stein by Napier concerning crimes committed by the Israeli military could only have been motivated by hostility towards Stein “because he was Jewish”, rather than by opposition to his political stance supporting the Israeli military

This claim is curious and the court’s acceptance of it ignored both the evidence and the political context. The BBC, STV, The Herald and other media often provide pro-genocide Stein with a platform to make baseless claims unchallenged – and there is little we can do about this. Court trial procedures, however, have in the past allowed SPSC and others to demolish brazen lies through searching cross-examination by a competent solicitor or advocate. The process, however, requires a sheriff of a certain calibre who is prepared to listen and has not made his mind up before hearing the defence submission, as was manifestly the case with Sheriff John McCormick on 22 December.

Context: Public Opinion and Failed Censorship Efforts

We draw confidence from Israel’s polecat status in global public opinion, as reflected in recent polling (reported by the Jerusalem Post). This Glasgow verdict is wildly out of step with both domestic and international opinion. This explains the series of recent defeats suffered by pro-Israel efforts to silence critics in Britain.

At Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Judge Snow dismissed an attempt by the Israeli Embassy-backed Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) to have comedian Reginald D. Hunter sanctioned for alleged antisemitism, rebuking the CAA for dishonesty and ordering it to attach his critical findings to any future communications. Similarly, a months-long police investigation into chants by the band Bob Vylan at Glastonbury concluded with no charges. In another case, the Metropolitan Police paid £7,500 compensation to Aisha Jung, who had been unlawfully detained over a placard criticising Israel’s actions in Gaza.

In Glasgow in October, a competent and impartial sheriff rejected an attempt by Glasgow Friends of Israel to secure an antisemitism conviction against Mick Napier for his presence at a protest against a GFoI rally at Kelvingrove Art Gallery in support of the Israeli military.

There Was No Antisemitic Abuse

As with Reginald D. Hunter, Bob Vylan and Aisha Jung, no antisemitic abuse occurred either outside Kelvingrove Art Gallery or at Barclays Bank on Argyle Street. In each instance allegations were simply asserted by pro-Israel activists or the police in order to silence criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza. Sheriff McCormick’s ruling is legally ill-informed and possibly politically driven, out of step with overwhelming public opinion.

The interaction that led to the Barclays charge consisted solely of political criticism directed at Stein in his highly visible role as Chair of Glasgow Friends of Israel, anger at his public support for Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

Mick Napier’s Record

Mick Napier’s record is longstanding and consistent. Over several decades, he has campaigned for Palestinian rights and against Israeli military occupation, apartheid and mass civilian killing, while also maintaining a firm and consistent opposition to antisemitism. This assessment is supported by testimony from individuals across the political spectrum; two must suffice here.

Here is an opinion from Israeli author and economist Shir Hever:

"I was deeply moved by the patience and open-mindedness of the SPSC activists who remain true to their rejection of racism of all kinds, and who have become a role-model for activists around the world on how to oppose apartheid without falling into the temptation of making hateful remarks or making unfair generalizations."

Here is an opinion from prominent GFoI member Matthew Berlow who in July 2017 wrote privately to Napier:

“I will make it clear that you are not anti-Semitic and cannot be responsible for those that may attach themselves to your cause but that you try and root it out to the best of your ability (July 2017)…There is no doubt that you are not anti-Semitic as you eloquently refute that at every opportunity…”(1 Aug 2017)

The Legally Flawed Basis of the Verdict

The December 2025 verdict was derived entirely from Mr Stein’s claim that he felt targeted because he is Jewish. No racist language by Napier was identified on the video shown in court of the anti-genocide protest in question and none has been identified in a body of writing and speaking over a 25-year period accessible to the public here.

This approach directly contradicts the principles established by the Macpherson Report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence. While Macpherson rightly required all allegations of racism to be recorded and investigated it did not remove the requirement for objective evidence of racist intent. Macpherson did not abolish evidential standards, did not change the presumption of innocence. The standard of proof in all criminal law remains 'beyond reasonable doubt'.

Sheriff John McCormick's approach also runs counter to the Bracadale recommendations. Lord Bracadale, a retired Sottish judge, was tasked by the Scottish Government in 2017 to review hate crime legislation in Scotland. His report was published in 2018.  Recommendations from this review were accommodated in what became the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. Regarding political entities he stated,

‘…  hate crime legislation should not extend to political entities as protected characteristics. I consider that such an approach would extend the concept of hate crime too far and dilute its impact. The freedom of speech to engage in political protest is vitally important. For these reasons I do not recommend extending the range of protected characteristics to include political entities.’

And regarding this point he highlighted an example that had involved five SPSC members

‘It may be helpful to explore this issue through examples based on cases which have come before the court. In one case, members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign shouted slogans during a concert at which the Jerusalem string quartet was performing. These included "they are Israeli army musicians"; "genocide in Gaza"; "end genocide in Gaza"; "boycott Israel". The accused were members of a political organisation which campaigns against Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories and advocates boycott. The content of their remarks was political in nature, including a call for a boycott. The evidence did not permit the inference that their comments were made because they presumed the musicians to be Israeli or Jewish.’

No evidence was presented to the Glasgow court that would “permit the inference that” words directed at the leader of an organisation that functions as an extension of the Israeli State were motivated by hostility to Jews as Jews.

A Documented History of Dishonesty and False Allegations

Stein’s GFoI works under the direction of the Israeli Embassy with other pro-Israel groups to shut down or marginalise pro-Palestine voices. This includes dirty tricks to have SPSC meetings cancelled. GFoI’s documented history of fabricating allegations of antisemitism is part of this effort. They join in Israeli Embassy-organised events including a Glasgow “political training day…from which…Israel and ultimately the truth will benefit”.  These Embassy events coordinate the smearing of those who actively oppose the genocide project.

Two GFoI senior figures campaigning for “Israel and truth”, Matthew Berlow (yes, the same individual mentioned above) and Edward Sutherland, were sanctioned by their professional bodies and ordered to pay compensation to SPSC and Mick Napier after falsely attributing an invented antisemitic incident to SPSC members. Mr Stein must have been aware of this disonesty and, in any event, it should have placed a huge question mark over any subsequent complaint emanating from GFoI, especially against the same target they had already been caught dishonestly smearing as antisemitic.

In 2016, the pro-Israel Jewish Chronicle alleged that SPSC protesters had made Nazi salutes and chanted “Sieg Heil” outside a GFoI event on the fringes of the Edinburgh Fringe. No evidence was presented and Police CCTV footage covering the entire 11-hour protest demonstrated conclusively that no such acts could have taken place.

Later the same year, a Manchester lawyer, Mr Anthony Dennison - struck off in 2013 for dishonesty! — accused Mick Napier of calling him “a fucking Jew” at the same heavily surveilled protest. Napier voluntarily attended St Leonard’s police station. No evidence was produced, police clearly did not believe the allegation, and the matter went no further.

Extreme Racist Rhetoric and Alliances

Glasgow Friends of Israel tolerates or promotes the most disgusting racist rhetoric. Examples are many but a few of the most egregious include social media posts authorised by Stein (as GFoI Facebook admin) reporting "the murder of three Jews in Halamish and the euthanising of three [Palestinian] rioters in Jerusalem." by Israeli forces. Such language is openly genocidal; Palestinians benefit from being killed since they are “unworthy of life”. This horrific post was 'liked' by 25 GFoI members and was no isolated horror.

A group of GFoI members welcomed the White supremacist 2019 massacre of 51 worshippers in two New Zealand mosques as “payback for the attacks that muslims have perpetrated across the globe perhaps this will curb their appetite for bloodshed”.

Palestinian civilian suffering — including the killing of hospital patients, journalists and worshippers, thousands of children — has repeatedly been dismissed by GFoI figures as “Pallywood”, a term implying that casualties are staged or fabricated for a gullible public opinion.

GFoI doesn’t stop at such Nazi-type rhetoric – they actively cooperate with fascists. Stein joined the gaggle of Tommy Robinson-inspired demonstrators on Buchanan Street, Glasgow on 20 September even placing himself in the front row of a group shouting anti-Palestinian obscenities, not far from someone making Nazi salutes.

Stein has a long history of working with extreme-right figures. Here he is with Max Dunbar, a well known veteran of the neo-Nazi Holocaust-denying BNP, one of the few extreme-right groups that did not make the transition to a pro-Israel stance by concealing or retiring their anti-semitism in favour of support for Israeli mass killings of Palestinians. Tommy Robinson, another BNP product was more agile and, following the path trodden by so many Tory and Labour politicians, went to Israel to pledge loyalty to the genocidal state.

Sixteen Years of Legal Attacks on SPSC

The December 2025 conviction did not arise in isolation. Over the past 16 years, Napier and SPSC have faced almost continuous legal harrassment, only trivial charges succeeding, and all serious charges thrown out.

In 2009, five SPSC members were charged with racially aggravated breach of the peace after disrupting an Israeli government-sponsored musical performance at the Edinburgh Festival. The charges were ridiculed by presiding Sheriff John Scott who ruled that the charges should never have been brought. In 2014, Napier was one of two members charged with racially aggravated conduct following protests against Israeli Dead Sea cosmetics stalls. After three years, the racial aggravation element was dismissed. On 31 October 2025, following a seven-day trial, a Glasgow sheriff rejected an attempt by GFoI to secure an antisemitism conviction against Napier following a protest at Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Courts in Kilmarnock and Glasgow have also thrown out or deserted two assault charges and a December 2023 Terrorism 2000 S.12 arrest and charge for allegedly supporting Hamas, later dropped. Minor convictions have related only to organising unauthorised demonstrations during Covid lockdown, and shouting too loudly at arms company executives at a demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament. Other charges were abandoned, and on one occasion police were ordered to apologise for wrongful arrest.

Wider Implications and Ongoing Repression

The December 2025 verdict represents a significant escalation; an attempt to use the courts to silence political criticism of Israel and Zionism, express support for Palestian liberation during an ongoing genocide. If the verdict stands, it establishes a precedent in which bad-faith, politically-driven allegations alone can secure guilty verdicts and raise the cost of opposition to Israel’s crimes.

SPSC also has to deal with other aspects of the deepening and widening repression, including the unexplained freezing of the SPSC bank account, ordered by UK political police without any specified offence. Thousands of activists now face Section 13 ‘Terrorism T-shirt’ charges. Napier has been singled out for a Section 12 version of T-shirt terrorism’ carrying a potential 14-year sentence. This in addition to a further terrorism charge carrying a 14-year threat, for posting reports on Facebook from Lebanon. Unfortunately Napier's citizen reportage, from Lebanon, video evidence of supposed terrorism, has been removed by Facebook.

Events in Gaza dwarf any cluster of court cases, and those jailed without trial and on hunger strikes in British jails for justice are fighting far more serious violations of our rights. Solidarity, though, is our main weapon and must extend to all those targeted for opposing genocide.

An appeal is under way. Its outcome will have implications far beyond one individual, raising fundamental questions about free expression, equal treatment before the law and the misuse of hate-crime and counter-terrorism legislation.

Sheriff John McCormick warned Napier that a prison sentence could be the result if he was arrested and charged again for protesting the genocide. After his 23 December verdict in support of the complaint of a genocide supporter, finding racism where none existed, we do not concede to McCormick any moral high ground. He will do what he does – punish opponents of Israeli genocide.

SPSC members collectively and individually pledge that we will not be intimidated by such pro-genocide individuals, whether in legal wig and robes or not; we will continue to fight – with your help – and we will never  betray the Palestinian people so cruelly violated by the UK Government and state institutions

We ask for your support by:

• Joining SPSC
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