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Kneecap member Mo Chara was charged with a terror offense Wednesday, stemming from an incident where he allegedly displayed a Hezbollah flag onstage during a London concert.
Although the London concert took place in November 2024, London Metropolitan Police weren’t made aware of the alleged incident until April 2025, when a video of Chara (born Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh and charged by the British police as Liam O’Hanna) and the Hezbollah flag surfaced online.
In the video, in addition to displaying the flag, the Irish rap trio is heard yelling “up Hamas, up Hezbollah,” as well as telling the crowd of conservative British politicians, “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
Earlier this month, London police opened an investigation and found that Ó hAnnaidh displayed the flag “in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organization,” which “led to the Crown Prosecution Service authorizing the above charge,” police said in a statement.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are banned in the U.K., and it is a crime to show support for them, the BBC reports. Following news of the investigation, Kneecap released a statement, “Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah,” and said the video in question was “an extract of footage, deliberately taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponized, as if it were a call to action.”
Ó hAnnaidh was sent the charge via mail, and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on June 18.
Last month, Kneecap performed at Coachella, where the trio’s pro-Palestine messaging was cut from the festival’s livestream on the first weekend and sparked controversy on the second weekend.