A woman who held up a poster depicting Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts during a London protest against Israel's war on Gaza has been charged with racist offences and is on trial.
Maleeha Hussain, 37, pleaded not guilty as her trial began at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday morning. Prosecutor Jonathan Bryan said the word “coconut” was a “well-known racist insult with a very clear meaning”.
Hussein held up a placard depicting the former prime minister and interior minister placed under a tree next to coconuts at a pro-Palestinian protest in November 2023.
“There were people present who may have felt harassed, anxious or distressed by the content of that sign,” Bryan said in his opening statement.
He said the word “coconut” is “a well-known racist slur with a very clear meaning” that means “you may be brown on the outside, but you're white on the inside. In other words, you're a race traitor. You're not as brown or black as you should be.”
Mr Bryan said Hussain, from High Wycombe, had “crossed the line of legitimate political expression” and gone into racist comments.
Rajiv Menon KC defended Mr Hussain and said the placard was a “political criticism” of Mr Sunak and Ms Braverman. Earlier this week the former chancellor and home secretary were criticised in an official report for wrongly criticising the Metropolitan police's handling of pro-Palestinian protests.
“What she is saying is that the then Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, who was sacked two days later, was in many ways promoting a racist political agenda, as seen in her Rwanda policy and her racist comments about small boats,” Menon said.
“And the prime minister either tolerated it or did nothing,” he added. “It was a political attack on these two politicians.”
In a statement read out in court by the prosecution, Ms Hussein said she had taken part in a pro-Palestinian protest with her family. “The march proceeded very slowly and we passed many police officers along the way, but they did not indicate anything provocative or disturbing was happening,” she said.
“No one at the demonstration suggested that the posters were an expression of hatred towards anyone in society.”
Hussain said the sign was against “the extraordinary hate speech against vulnerable and minority groups issued by the Home Secretary and supported by the Prime Minister.” “It is astonishing that this could be perceived as a message of hate,” he added in a statement.
Told in court, Chris Humphreys, the Metropolitan police's director of communications, said images would come to the police's attention if a post was tagged with a police social media account. He said the Metropolitan police were “actively monitoring” accounts that frequently posted protest-related imagery.
Menon said the image of Hussein's sign was posted by an X account with the username Harry's Place, which he said is “a secretive political blog based in Washington, DC, that specifically opposes any criticism of the state of Israel.”
The account regularly posts images of people taking part in Palestine Solidarity Marches, including some holding signs that read “Respect our existence or prepare to fight” and “Stop the war crimes.”
When asked about the account, Humphreys responded, “I am aware that Harry's Place is an anonymous political blog.”
The trial continues.
