British Justice Secretary David Lammy received over a hundred letters from lawyers expressing support for Farhad Ansari, a solicitor who has fought against the proscription of Hamas, the Jewish Chronicle reported earlier this week.
The letters were also sent to Attorney-General Lord Hermer and Law Society President Mark Evans.
The letter complained that the Law Society’s alleged failure to speak up in solidarity with Ansari is “an egregious failure of the UK to comply with its duties” under the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of the Profession of the Lawyer.
Seven of the 118 writers are members of the King’s Council, a prestigious title granted to senior lawyers appointed by the monarch, according to the JC.
The signatories claim that Ansari’s defense of Hamas led his offices to be “inundated with threats of violence and death.”
The letter also expressed concern after North Wales police “targeted, stopped, detained, [and] questioned” for reasons they have not yet provided.
Since his arrest, Ansari has raised more than £33,000 to cover the legal costs of “challenging the police seizure of my work phone.”
Defending Hamas in the United Kingdom
Despite 18 British nationals being murdered by attacks led by Hamas on October 7, and a number of British former hostages describing the abuse they experienced in captivity, Ansari’s Riverway Law firm challenged Hamas’s proscription, claiming that Hamas poses “no threat to the UK people.”
Ansari had previously eulogized former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on social media and posted that protested in support of Hezbollah as a 24-year-old in 2006, before the group’s proscription.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick told the Daily Telegraph that Riverway “isn’t a law firm committed to upholding the rule of law – they are naked activists who seek to weaponise it.”