Rajiv Menon, a prominent human rights lawyer in the United Kingdom, has been charged with criminal contempt for his closing speech in the trial of his client, Charlotte “Lottie” Head, one of four Palestine Action activists sentenced as terrorists over their involvement in a 2024 protest and raid on an Israeli weapons factory. The charges against Menon are similarly unprecedented. He is accused of encouraging a jury to acquit Head according to their conscience. Menon denies this accusation and says he was simply informing the jury of a prior case that is famous in British legal history. Menon says that, along with the government’s ban on Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws, the case against him is having a “chilling effect” on protests in the U.K.
