FORMER diplomat Craig Murray has told how he was detained under draconian anti-terror laws after attending a pro-Palestine protest.
The pro-independence blogger was returning from Reykjavik on Monday where he had been attending a meeting of a campaign group he is part of calling for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s freedom.
While in Iceland, he had attended a pro-Palestine protest, which was organised the Hamas attacks on Israel which have sparked a brutal war in the Middle East.
Murray said he was stopped at Glasgow Airport on his return to the UK and detained under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act – which gives police far-reaching powers to deprive people of basic rights while under questioning.
The Act gives police officers the power to question people without a lawyer present and to strip them of their right to remain silent.
The former diplomat, who was briefly jailed in 2021 for committing a contempt of court during the Alex Salmond trial, described the police officers’ questioning as “intrusive”.
Murray told The National: “I came back from Reykjavik on Monday morning and I was detained at Glasgow Airport by the police after I came through passport control.
“They took me into a wee room and they said that I was detained under the Terrorism Act, which was an extraordinary thing.”
The officers, understood to be members of Police Scotland’s Border Policing Command unit, were said to have taken Murray’s phone and laptop and asked for his passwords for both devices.
'Remarkably draconian'
He added: “Not to provide any of those things was in itself a criminal offence, which sounds remarkably draconian.
“But I’d sort of heard of it vaguely, so I wasn’t enormously surprised.”
Murray said he was then questioned by the police his political views and his personal finances.
"The questions were kind of 50-50,” he said.
“I was in Iceland for a campaign planning meeting of the campaign to free Julian Assange, that’s what I was in Iceland doing.
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“They questioned me half the time on that and the other half the time on my views on Gaza and Palestine.
“They asked me why I’d attended a Palestine demonstration in Iceland and they asked me if I intended to attend any demonstrations for Palestine in the UK.
“Then they asked me how I decided who I would appear on a platform with, how I assessed the other people on the platform and made up my mind whether I was prepared to appear with them or not, which seemed a strange question, a very peculiar and detailed question for a policeman to ask.
“In reply, I said to them, ‘When you’re speaking at a big demonstration, like a Stop the War demonstration, it’s impossible to know who the others are and often these things go on for hours and personally I don’t ever tend to stay around much, I just tend to make my speech and leave.’
“But if they’re people I know, like the Palestine Solidarity Campaign or Stop the War, then I trust them as a sensible organisation in terms of who they invite.
“But they asked me a lot of questions about my personal finances. It was very intrusive and what that’s got to do with terrorism, I’ve no idea.”
Murray said they asked him whether he was paid by the campaign to free Assange, and whether he belonged to any other organisations.
He said he is still awaiting the return of his phone and laptop after he was released without charge after an hour of questioning.
Murray added: “The whole thing’s extraordinary, I don’t think anybody can seriously believe I have any connection to terrorism of any kind.”
Questions over Hamas support
There has been speculation that Murray was detained because of a tweet he posted the day before he flew back from Iceland, which read: “I have always viscerally opposed war. I have dedicated my life to conflict resolution and reconciliation.
“But in the coming Gaza genocide, every act of armed resistance by Hamas and Hezbollah will have my support.
“If that is a crime, send me back to jail.”
It is a crime under the Terrorism Act to express support – even “moral support or approval” – for a proscribed terrorist organisation such as Hamas.
Murray said the tweet did not come up during questioning.
Police Scotland was approached for comment.
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