A Christian preacher has won £10,000 in damages and costs from the Metropolitan Police after being arrested, strip searched and unlawfully imprisoned for wearing a Charlie Hebdo t-shirt and having her property stolen at Speakers’ Corner in London.
Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Miss Hatun Tash had launched legal action after she was arrested in June 2022 in front of a baying crowd of Islamic extremists at the most famous place in the world for free speech.
Miss Tash, who has nearly 700,000 subscribers on YouTube, is a well-known Christian evangelist who regularly critiques and debates the Qur’an and Islam at Speakers’ Corner. She is the director of the ministry Defend Christ Critique Islam (DCCI).
She has been stabbed at Speakers’ Corner, and faced a terrorist plot to take her life, but repeatedly the police have sided with the Muslim mobs persecuting her, rather than protecting her.
In this incident, which has not been reported in the media before, video footage reveals Miss Tash being frog-marched by the police through Hyde Park, pursued by a crowd of men who revel in her arrest, chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’.
On Sunday 26 June 2022, Miss Tash was setting up a camera at a crowded Speakers’ Corner preparing to preach.
As part of her critique of the Qur’an she would hold a copy of it with holes in it. She used this visual aid to present the growing thinking, even among Islamic scholars such as Sheikh Yasir Qadhi, that the “standard [Islamic] narrative has holes in it”.
As she was setting up a man snuck up on her belongings, grabbed her copy of the Qur’an and ran off through the crowd.
The Christian friends accompanying Miss Tash called the police to report the theft.
However, as the police arrived, instead of establishing what had happened, and without any discussion, an officer tried to draw her away from the growing crowd.
Refusing to move from where she planned to preach, the officers then put her in a hold and began to frog-march her through the crowds to waiting police vans.
Crowds of Muslims, laughed, crowed, filmed, pursued, mocked and assaulted Miss Tash as she was led away.
The police did nothing to control the crowd or deal with any of the violent intimidation.
Dumped in a police van, her belongings were left unattended at Speakers’ Corner where they could have been stolen. A Muslim man later posed for the cameras holding Miss Tash’s stolen property after the police retrieved the Qur’an and gave it to him.
Told that she had been arrested for ‘criminal damage’, which was false as it was her belongings that were stolen, she was also told that she was arrested under s 4a POA 1986 and section 18 POA 1986 for wearing a Charlie Hebdo t-shirt which depicted the Prophet Mohammed.
Arriving at Charing Cross Police station, with the intent of maximum humiliation, Miss Tash was strip searched, which her lawyers later said breached her Article 3 ECHR rights.
Officers also deliberately removed her glasses so that she could not see, and she was then deprived of sleep and interrogated at 4am.
Released at 9am, after 15 hours in custody, she was told that there would be no further action and she was not given any assistance to retrieve her belongings from Speakers’ Corner.
Legal action
Taking legal action, Miss Tash’s lawyers argued that her rights had been breached under Articles 9 & 10 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Under law the police can only interfere with an individual’s free speech rights for “convincing and compelling reasons” and in a proportionate way.
Lawyers said that ‘Even if arrest and detention is deemed lawful initially it may subsequently become unlawful’ and that ‘the burden is on the police to show that the detention was lawful “minute by minute”.’
They cited legal precedent which presented that there is considerable protection afforded to individuals, such as Miss Tash, who seek to persuade others to change their religion. Judge Martens, for example, said:
“These absolute freedoms explicitly include freedom to change one’s religion and beliefs. Whether or not somebody intends to change religion is no concern of the State’s and, consequently, neither in principle should it be the State’s concern if somebody attempts to induce another to change his religion.”
“In principle, however, it is not within the province of the State to interfere in this ‘conflict’ between proselytiser and proselytized. First, because-since respect for human dignity and human freedom implies that the State is bound to accept that in principle everybody is capable of determining his fate in the way that he deems best-there is no justification for the State to use its power ‘to protect’ the proselytised.”
Lawyers concluded that the police: ‘Did not reasonably believe that [Miss Tash] was involved in the commission of a criminal offence, concerning the first incident it was clear that she had done nothing illegal and concerning the second incident, the officers believed that the easiest solution to the problem was ‘get rid of our client’.’
With no justification for their actions forthcoming, the police agreed to settle the case and compensate Miss Tash.
Series of incidents
The police payout is the latest in a line of incidents involving the police arresting Miss Tash instead of taking action against Islamic extremists who have repeatedly assaulted her and even tried to take her life.
The police have previously had to pay out £10,000 in compensation to the Christian preacher after falsely arresting her in May 2021. Minutes earlier, pro-Palestinian protestors who incited Miss Tash’s arrest were recorded calling for ‘Jewish blood.’
In July 2021, Miss Tash was repeatedly stabbed by a man in an Islamic robe in front of the police. Disturbingly, the attacker has never been caught and is believed to have escaped abroad.
Receiving numerous death threats and Osman warnings, in December 2023, an Islamic terrorist, Edward Little, was jailed after police foiled his plot to murder Miss Tash with a gun. In January 2024 Mr Little was jailed for a minimum of 24 years.
‘Two-tier policing’
Responding to the settlement, Miss Tash, who has given the settlement money to an organisation supporting individuals who decide to leave the Islamic faith and face persecution for doing so, said:
“I have been dealing with two-tiered policing for years. Muslim mobs at Speakers’ Corner are above the law and have been allowed by the police to do what they like to silence debate, increasingly by any means.
“I have been treated appallingly by the police and have been repeatedly humiliated when I had not done anything wrong.
“The police, as usual, just did exactly what the Muslim mob wanted them to do. They even sided with the men who had stolen my property and to this day have taken no action.
“The police have repeatedly taken away my rights and told me that they cannot protect me because they do not want to offend a certain group of people.
“More must be done to properly deal with Islamic violence and intimidation at Speakers’ Corner. We don’t live in Pakistan; we don’t live in Saudi Arabia. I am Christian and by default I believe that Muhammad is a false prophet. I should be allowed to say that in the UK without being stabbed or repeatedly arrested.
“I am concerned that power has been handed over to Muslim mobs on Britain’s streets, and that there is no coming back from this.
“The British public urgently need and deserve better policing.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said:
“There is a two tier approach to anyone questioning the nature of Islam.
“This was another lamentable episode of policing at Speakers’ Corner. The video footage of Hatun being marched away is deeply disturbing and demonstrates the totalitarian approach to anyone who stands against Islam in London.”
Find out more about Hatun Tash