Over 100 public figures sign statement condemning UK harassment of Muslim solicitor Fahad Ansari

More than one hundred academics, lawyers, imams, journalists and campaigners have signed a statement condemning what they describe as an “escalating campaign of harassment” by British authorities against Fahad Ansari, an Irish Muslim solicitor known for his work on national security and human rights.

The signatories – a cross‑section of public life spanning law, academia, civil society and medicine – accuse the UK government of politically targeting Ansari “solely for carrying out his professional duties.”

Ansari was detained on 6 August 2025 under the Schedule 7 powers of the Terrorism Act while returning from a family holiday in Ireland through Holyhead port. Police held him for nearly three hours, interrogated him about his religious practice, including how regularly he attends mosque, his views on Palestine, and seized his work phone, which contained legally privileged information. His family, including his wife and children, were made to wait in their car throughout the ordeal.

The detention of Ansari is said to be the first known case in which Schedule 7 powers have been used against a solicitor in this manner. 

WATCH: Crackdown on Free Speech: How Pro-Palestinian Voices Are Being Criminalised: MEMO in conversation with Fahad Ansari

Ansari is a senior solicitor known for his legal work on national security cases, including challenging government actions in the courts. Earlier this year, he persuaded the Supreme Court to rule that the UK government had acted unlawfully by denying citizenship to the child of a man whose own nationality had been stripped. In April, he submitted a formal application for the deprescription of Hamas, invoking Section 4 of the Terrorism Act 2000 — a legal provision allowing banned organisations to challenge their status.

The statement details the backlash that followed: “Fahad was immediately subjected to smears by senior politicians and the media, including identifying him with his client, and he received hundreds of abusive calls and messages, including threats of violence and death threats.”

It also draws attention to the broader abuse of Schedule 7, which, the signatories write, “has been widely condemned by the UN, successive independent reviewers of counter terrorism legislation, as well as domestic and international human rights organisations, for being overly broad in its application, lacking essential safeguards and being applied in a discriminatory manner, specifically against the Muslim community.”

The power allows people to be detained and interrogated without suspicion. The statement argues that Schedule 7 has been used “to harass and intimidate activists, journalists and other human rights defenders in order to create an environment of fear as well as to illegitimately access vast amounts of personal data without judicial oversight.”

The statement of solidarity has been signed by a broad coalition including Emeritus Professor Avi Shlaim of the University of Oxford, Dr Asim Qureshi of CAGE International, Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, journalist Jonathan Cook, and Imam Shakeel Begg of Lewisham Islamic Centre, alongside numerous barristers and solicitors from leading human rights chambers and legal associations.

“We stand in solidarity with Fahad and support his claim for a judicial review against the Chief Constable of North Wales Police and the Home Secretary. We call on the British authorities to immediately cease their campaign of harassment,” the signatories declare.

Full Statement