UK court clears woman of voicing support for Hamas in university speech

Sarah Cotte said her comments were not in support of Hamas, but in support of Palestinians’ right to resist.

Sarah Cotte celebrates after a jury in London found her not guilty of voicing support for Hamas in, on September 18, 2026 [Courtesy of Richard Bayfield]

A London court has cleared a British woman of supporting Palestinian group Hamas in a speech she gave outside her university in 2023.

The jury at the Central Criminal Court, more commonly known as the Old Bailey, on Friday found Sarah Cotte, 22, not guilty of expressing support for the group that’s designated a “terrorist” organisation under UK law.

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Public prosecutors had alleged that Cotte voiced support for Hamas two days after the group led the deadly attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

During a speech she gave outside the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London at the time, she expressed “unconditional solidarity” with the Palestinian resistance, the court was told. Prosecutors claimed this was a “thinly veiled reference” to Hamas.

Cotte repeatedly rejected attempts to equate the two, telling the court: “I don’t support Hamas and I have never supported Hamas. I was supporting the right to resist.”

Speaking to Al Jazeera after the verdict on Friday, Cotte said the court’s decision was a “testament to how people are feeling about British support for Zionism”.

“I never condemned the right to armed struggle in Palestine,” Cotte said. “I didn’t let them corner me and make this a conversation about what Zionists want to talk about.”

Instead, she said, “I used it as a platform to talk about what I thought was important, which was the Palestinian struggle, British support for Zionism and our rights as people of conscience.”

Hamas was officially proscribed in its entirety by the UK government in late 2021, when its political wing was also banned. Its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has been proscribed since 2001. Those found guilty of supporting such groups can face up to 14 years in prison.

On the final day of the week-long trial on Friday, Cotte again denied expressing support for Hamas during her speech at SOAS while she was a student there and argued that she had only expressed support for Palestinians’ “right to resist”.

“I think that the killing of civilians is always a tragedy. At the same time, I don’t think it is a surprise,” she told jurors about her comments regarding Hamas’s October 7 attack.

“I think saying it is understandable and agreeing with it is two different things, so I think it is understandable and could be justified,” she explained.

“I don’t think it’s my role to impose conditions on the Palestinian people and their struggle,” Cotte added.

In comments to Al Jazeera after the verdict, she said: “This victory will re-energise the whole of the solidarity movement … We stand with the Palestinian people and their right to be agents in their struggle for freedom.”

Responding to the not guilty verdict, Anas Mustapha, head of Public Advocacy at CAGE International, said the ruling showed that “ordinary people will not accept the criminalisation of speech in support of the Palestinian right to resist occupation.”

“Sarah Cotte has been found not guilty, and we are delighted for her, her family, and everyone who stood alongside her through more than two and a half years of investigation and court proceedings,” Mustapha said.

Cotte gave the speech on October 9, 2023. She was arrested over it on January 31, 2024. An earlier trial found her not guilty of a second charge of expressing support for Hamas in a WhatsApp group chat.

萨拉·科特表示，她的评论并非支持哈马斯，而是支持巴勒斯坦人抵抗的权利。

2026年9月18日，伦敦陪审团裁定莎拉·科特（Sarah Cotte）无罪，罪名是公开支持哈马斯，莎拉·科特在裁决后庆祝。[图片由理查德·贝菲尔德提供]

伦敦一家法院裁定，一名英国女子在2023年于其大学外发表的演讲中支持巴勒斯坦组织哈马斯的指控不成立。

周五，中央刑事法院（俗称老贝利法院）陪审团裁定，22 岁的莎拉·科特 (Sarah Cotte) 并未因表达对被英国法律认定为“恐怖组织”的团体的支持而被判无罪。

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公诉人指控科特在哈马斯于 2023 年 10 月 7 日对以色列发动致命袭击两天后，公开表示支持哈马斯。

据法庭获悉，当时她在伦敦亚非学院（SOAS）外发表讲话时，表达了对巴勒斯坦抵抗运动的“无条件声援”。检方称，这番话“隐晦地”指的是哈马斯。

科特多次驳斥将两者等同起来的企图，并告诉法庭：“我不支持哈马斯，也从来没有支持过哈马斯。我支持的是抵抗的权利。”

科特在周五判决后接受半岛电视台采访时表示，法院的判决“证明了人们对英国支持犹太复国主义的看法”。

科特说：“我从未谴责巴勒斯坦人民进行武装斗争的权利。我没有让他们把我逼入绝境，让这场对话变成犹太复国主义者想谈论的话题。”

相反，她说：“我利用这个平台来谈论我认为重要的事情，那就是巴勒斯坦人的斗争、英国对犹太复国主义的支持以及我们作为有良知的人的权利。”

2021年底，英国政府正式将哈马斯整体列为非法组织，其政治分支也被取缔。哈马斯的军事分支卡桑旅自2001年起就被列为非法组织。任何被判支持此类组织的人都可能面临最高14年的监禁。

在为期一周的审判的最后一天，也就是周五，科特再次否认在她还是伦敦大学亚非学院学生时，曾在该校演讲中表达过对哈马斯的支持，并辩称她只是表达了对巴勒斯坦人“抵抗权”的支持。

“我认为杀害平民始终是一场悲剧。但同时，我认为这并不令人意外，”她在向陪审团解释她对哈马斯10月7日袭击事件的评论时说道。

“我认为说它可理解和同意它是两回事，所以我认为这是可理解的，而且可能是合理的，”她解释说。

科特补充说：“我认为我没有资格对巴勒斯坦人民及其斗争施加任何条件。”

判决后，她在接受半岛电视台采访时表示：“这场胜利将重新激发整个声援运动的活力……我们与巴勒斯坦人民站在一起，支持他们作为争取自由的行动者的权利。”

针对无罪判决，CAGE International 公共倡导负责人阿纳斯·穆斯塔法表示，该判决表明“普通民众不会接受将支持巴勒斯坦人抵抗占领权利的言论定为犯罪”。

“莎拉·科特被判无罪，我们为她、她的家人以及在两年半多的调查和法庭诉讼中一直支持她的所有人感到高兴，”穆斯塔法说。

科特于 2023 年 10 月 9 日发表了该演讲。她于 2024 年 1 月 31 日因此被捕。此前的一次审判认定她无罪，罪名是她在 WhatsApp 群聊中表达了对哈马斯的支持。