Senior lawyers back UK solicitor working to end terror blacklisting of Hamas

More than 100 British attorneys, including King’s Counsel, defend lawyer pushing for removing Hamas from the terrorist blacklist, criticizing police probe.

By World Israel News Staff

Over 100 attorneys in the United Kingdom, including a number of senior lawyers, have signed an open letter defending a solicitor probed by police over his efforts to secure the delisting of Hamas as a terrorist organization.

In April 2025, Fahad Ansari, then the principal solicitor for Riverway Law, formally submitted an appeal on behalf of the Hamas terror organization and Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk to the British government, requesting that London drop the Islamist group from its terror blacklist.

Ansari argued in his petition that the ban on Hamas violated the rights of the group’s supporters under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), including the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association.

Three months later, Britain’s Home Office rejected Ansari’s petition, leaving the ban on Hamas in place.

Since 2021, the UK has banned Hamas in its entirety, and not merely the group’s military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

The petition on behalf of Hamas sparked a major backlash in the UK, with calls from conservative lawmakers and Jewish groups to disbar Ansari and other solicitors pushing to legalize the terror group.

“They need to investigate urgently and strike them off if in breach,” wrote MP and Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick on X.

“The legal profession is being damaged by ideologues exploiting their status to platform extremism.”

Ansari, a prominent anti-Israel, pro-Hamas activist, has endorsed the slogan “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free,” calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.

He has publicly lauded Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a radical Islamic cleric who founded Hamas, and has endorsed terror attacks on Israelis, legitimizing such attacks as “violent armed resistance.”

“The time for peaceful means of protest ended a long time ago,” Ansari wrote on X in March.

In recent months, Ansari has faced heightened police scrutiny, and in August was detained upon his return to the UK following a vacation. Authorities seized his cell phone under counter-terror regulations before releasing him.

Since then, Ansari has sought an injunction barring police from examining the material copied from his personal device and suing for alleged false arrest.

Last week, 118 British lawyers signed onto a letter penned to Justice Secretary David Lammy, declaring support for Ansari and criticizing the North Wales Police for the detention of Ansari and seizure of his phone.

The group, which includes seven of Britain’s roughly 2,000 King’s Counsels – senior lawyers appointed by the English monarch – lamented the public backlash against Ansari, and condemned the official investigation against the pro-Hamas lawyer.

Ansari, they argued, “has suffered significant adverse consequences as a result of having provided exactly such advice and assistance to such a group.”

The signatories called on government ministers, including Lammy, to publicly back Ansari.

Since his arrest, Ansari has received over £33,000 in donations to fund his bid to bar authorities from probing his telephone data.