Austrian Police Detain Richard Medhurst; Accuse Him of Being Hamas Member; UK Extends Probe Against Him
By Joe Lauria / Consortium News
British independent journalist Richard Medhurst said Thursday he was detained this week by Austrian police and intelligence agents and accused of being a member of Hamas.
Medhurst, who lives in Austria and is a fierce critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, said police raided his home on Monday, took his devices and interrogated him. “They essentially lured me into a trap,” he said on a video posted on X.
The journalist said immigration authorities called him to a meeting where they threatened to revoke his residency because of his reporting on Palestine and Lebanon.
When he thought the interview at the immigration office was over, he said a group of plainesclothes officers entered the room flashing their badges. He was detained and served with a search warrant.
Medhurst said he was accused by them of encouraging terrorism, disseminating propaganda and being involved in organized crime.
Last week, Medhurst said British police extended its investigation of him into alleged violation of the British Terrorism Act. “And then suddenly this happens in Vienna,” he said on the video. “I don’t think that is mere coincidence.”
Medhurst was arrested last August entering his own country at Heathrow Airport and detained nearly 24 hours for allegedly violating the British Terrorism Act by supporting a “proscribed organization,” namely Hamas.
Section 12 of the British Terrorism Act criminalizes holding certain opinions or beliefs. It reads:
“12 Support.
(1) A person commits an offence if—
(a) he invites support for a proscribed organisation, and
(b) the support is not, or is not restricted to, the provision of money or other property (within the meaning of section 15).
[F1(1A) A person commits an offence if the person—
(a) expresses an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation, and
(b ) in doing so is reckless as to whether a person to whom the _expression_ is directed will be encouraged to support a proscribed organisation.“
Medhurst said he found it difficult to believe that the British authorities had not communicated with the Austrian agents about him. The journalist said the Austrian warrant mentioned his arrest in London.
After the raid, he was brought down to the station to be fingerprinted, photographed and interrogated for seven hours, but he said he refused to answer their questions before he was released.
“I categorically deny all of these accusations by the Austrian and British governments, I’m a journalist, not a terrorist, and they bloody-well know it,” Medhurst said in his video. He added that he was a Christian being accused of belonging to Hamas, an Islamist organization resisting Israel’s occupation of Gaza.
Medhurst said the allegations by both countries were similar, but there has now been a “massive escalation” to accuse him of being a “member of a proscribed organization.” The British only accuse him of supporting the proscribed organization, Hamas, through his journalism.
“This is insanity,” he said. “This is an attack on the entire profession, on freedom of speech, on democracy itself.”
Medhurst said he could face up to 14 years of prison in Britain, plus 2-5 years if he doesn’t give them the passwords to his devices and perhaps 10 years in Austria.
On Thursday former British diplomat Craig Murray, who is also being investigated by British authorities under the Terrorism Act because of his journalism, reported that:
“Four U.N. special rapporteurs have written jointly to the U.K. government demanding explanation of its inappropriate persecution of journalists and political activists under the Terrorism Act.
They state that those persecuted:
‘appear to have no credible connection to “terrorist” or “hostile” activity.’
The cases taken up by the United Nations are those of Johanna Ross (Ganyukova), John Laughland, Kit Klarenberg, Craig Murray (yes, me), Richard Barnard and Richard Medhurst.”
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Joe Lauria
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at joelauria@consortiumnews.com and followed on Twitter @unjoe