Minister expects probe into judge who appeared to like antisemitic LinkedIn post
Social media grab seems to show magistrates court Judge Tan Ikram, who gave 12-month conditional discharge to three women found guilty of terror offence, liking post saying 'Free Free Palestine'
A minister has suggested a judge accused of giving “lenient sentences” for terrorism offences should be investigated for appearing to support a pro-Palestine social media post.
The Home Office’s Chris Philp told MPs he would expect the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) to examine the matter, as the Commons discussed antisemitism in the UK.
He was responding to Conservative former minister Sir Michael Ellis, who said the failure of police to deal with incidents in marches in London is a “historic disgrace that has unleashed more attacks”.
Three women in their 20s were found guilty of a terrorist offence for holding images of paragliders at a pro-Palestinian march in central London the week following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Each was given a 12-month conditional discharge by Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram.
A screen grab shared on social media appeared to show the judge’s account had liked a LinkedIn post which read: “Free Free Palestine. To the Israeli terrorist both in the United Kingdom, the United States, and of course Israel you can run, you can bomb but you cannot hide – justice will be coming for you.”
The judge said he “didn’t know he had liked the post” and “if he did, it was a genuine mistake”, according to comments issued on his behalf by the Judicial Press Office.
Speaking in the Commons, former attorney general Sir Michael said: “Campaigns of antisemitism are occurring in many universities in this country and some Jewish students have visited me to tell me about it, and it is bone chilling, some of these accounts.
“But my concern to the minister is this now – reports of a magistrates court judge liking an antisemitic post on social media having passed an extremely lenient sentence on protesters convicted of terrorism offences.
“This judge apparently trains other junior members of the judiciary and is involved in judicial appointments of other judges.
“Shouldn’t that result in a full, deep investigation with a past docket of cases being checked for bias and a potential suspension pending the interim report?”
Mr Philp said he would expect the matter to be investigated.
He said: “In relation to the judge, the judiciary are of course independent, and matters of judicial conduct are subject to investigation by the judicial conduct investigation office and from the account of the incident that I’ve heard and that I’ve heard (Sir Michael) give, this is the kind of thing I would be expecting the JCIO to be investigating.”
Mr Philp also said that police are expected to take “robust action” when behaviour on marches crosses the criminal threshold.
“They’ve made about 600 arrests so far, in fact some brave police officers were injured in the course of trying to make an arrest in London, just on Saturday,” he said.
The Judicial Press Office previously said it does not comment on whether complaints regarding judicial conduct had been received, or the status of the complaints. Outcomes of investigations are published by the JCIO.
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