On Monday, 29 April, police received a public referral in relation to online posts allegedly showing support for Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation. The matter was referred to specialist officers in the national Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit to assess the posts and it was then passed to detectives within the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command for further investigation.
On Tuesday, 14 May, a 47-year-old man was arrested in south west London on suspicion of showing support to a terrorist organisation, contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act, 2000. He was taken into police custody and officers also carried out a search at an address in south west London as part of the investigation.
The man was subsequently released from police custody and has been bailed to a date in early August. Enquiries remain ongoing.
Anyone wishing to report extremist or terrorist content can do so online.
Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Since the terrible attacks in Israel last October, and throughout the ensuing conflict, we have seen a significant increase in the amount of extremist and terrorist material being referred to us by the public.
“Every single referral gets assessed by specialist officers, and where we think terrorism offences could have been committed here in the UK, then we will always look to investigate, identify and arrest the person responsible and bring them to justice if we find evidence of a crime being committed.”
Further information:
The Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) is a national Counter Terrorism Policing unit based within the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, which is dedicated to identifying terrorist and extremist material online. It works with service providers to seek the removal of such material. If material breaches UK terrorism law, police will carry out an investigation.
We encourage people who see material online that they are concerned may be terrorist or extremist to report it to the team.
