Nadeem Badshah
The Guardian / September 13, 2024
Marieha Hussain had denied her placard depicting Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman was racially abusive.
A teacher who held a placard depicting Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts has been found not guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence.
Marieha Hussain, 37, had denied the prosecution’s allegation that the placard she held at a pro-Palestine protest was “racially abusive”.
She carried a picture showing the faces of the then prime minister and home secretary superimposed on coconuts under a palm tree in November 2023.
Hussain’s defence said the placard was satirical and humorous.
She denied the charge and was acquitted on Friday at Westminster magistrates court.
Outside court after the hearing, the teacher, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, said: “The damage done to my reputation and image can never be undone.
“The laws on hate speech must serve to protect us more but this trial shows that these rules are being weaponised to target ethnic minorities.
“It goes without saying that this ordeal has been agonising for my family and I. Instead of enjoying my pregnancy I’ve been vilified by media, I’ve lost my career, I’ve been dragged through the court system.
“Nearly a year on from the genocide in Gaza, and despite this trial, I’m more determined than ever to continue using my voice to defend Palestine.”
Clearing Hussain, district judge Vanessa Lloyd said: “I find that it was part of the genre of political satire and, as such, the prosecution have not proved to the criminal standard that it was abusive.
“The prosecution has also not proved to the criminal standard that you were aware that your placard may be abusive.”
Hussain said the placard was a “light-hearted piece of political banter”, a way to depict something serious in a “British satirical way”, the court heard.
In his closing speech, Rajiv Menon KC, defending, said: “This prosecution of Ms Hussain is … a disturbing attack on the right of freedom of expression; the right to peaceful protest that did not risk in any shape or form violence or public disorder; the right to anti-racists to criticise members of their own race for pursuing racist policies and using racist rhetoric; the right to satirise our politicians; the right to mock and tease and make fun of our politicians in a light-hearted way that Marieha Hussain attempted to do with her placard.
“That Marieha Hussain of all people is being prosecuted for a racially aggravated offence whilst the likes of Suella Braverman and Nigel Farage and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – aka Tommy Robinson – and Frank Hester are seemingly free to make inflammatory and divisive statements … is, I’m afraid, incomprehensible to many people.”
The court heard expert opinion on whether the term “coconut” is a racial slur.
Menon said experts struggled to see how the term could be capable of being a slur without “some qualifying word, behaviour, context” that racialises it.
“There is no racialising qualifier (in this case),” he added.
He questioned why the prosecution did not produce an expert to say the term “coconut” is a racial slur and why they did not call someone who was offended by Hussain’s placard to give evidence.
Prosecutor Jonathan Bryan said the term “coconut” was a “well-known racial slur which has a very clear meaning”.
He said: “You may be brown on the outside, but you’re white on the inside. In other words, you’re a race traitor – you’re less brown or black than you should be.”
Bryan added that the defendant “crossed the line between legitimate political expression” and moved into “racial insult”.
Menon said previously that the “humorous and satirical” placard was “a pictorial attempt to criticise the policy of Rishi Sunak and, particularly, Suella Braverman and their race politics given what was happening at the time in the country”.
He told the court: “What she is saying is Suella Braverman – then home secretary, sacked two days after – was promoting in different ways a racist political agenda as evidenced by the Rwanda policy, the racist rhetoric she was using around small boats.
“And the prime minister was either quiescing to it or being inactive. It was a political criticism of these two particular politicians.”
Nadeem Badshah is a freelance journalist
