Military News Today

Laura Davis, 22yr old trans refugee from Saudi Arabia who was arrested for waving a sign calling for Israel to ‘Burn in Hell’ at a pro-Palestine protest rally in London was found guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court on Friday.

The 22yr old was fined £100 after appearing in court with an Arabic translator claiming she did not know what she was holding. She was charged and found guilty of having caused racially, religious aggravated harassment, alarm or distress by words or writing.

The sign was likely to cause ‘harassment alarm or distress’ and the offence was ‘racially aggravated’, the court was told, but lawyers for the Saudi woman said she didn’t understand its meaning and found it on her way to the rally.

Nicholas Tarry, chairman of the magistrates’ bench, told Davis the message on the placard ‘is not an appropriate thing to be waving; it’s violent language about another country and it is not allowed’.

The court heard Davis fled her home in Saudi Arabia in December 2021 because she was not accepted as a transgender person. She was granted asylum in the summer.

Met Police officers stopped her on Regent Street on the evening of October 28 after spotting the sign on CCTV.

Mr Tarry, who ordered her to pay a total of £225 including £100 fine, £40 victim surcharge and £85 costs, told Davis: ‘You have come to this country for tolerance. You deserve tolerance and other people do as well.

‘You must show other people the tolerance you expect them to show you. Do you understand?’

Davis nodded quietly as she stood in the dock.

An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of the capital on October 28, three weeks after Hamas terrorists entered Gaza and slaughtered some 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians.

Speaking in mitigation, defence lawyer Nicola White said Davis attended the rally ‘with good intentions’ but, in ‘an impulsive action’, carried the sign away after finding it at the bus stop.

Davis did not mean to offend anyone, Ms White said, adding that she has shown remorse and made an early guilty plea.

She added that the protester did not seek clarification about the sign’s meaning from someone who could help her understand it.

Ms White said: ‘She has expressed deep remorse and regret in that moment in picking up that sign that she did not seek clarification from another Arabic-speaking member of the protest (about its meaning).’

She added: ‘She is a member of the transgender community and due to the views in Saudi Arabia, she had no choice but to flee. She has been abandoned by her family because of the way she lives.’

The money and costs will be deducted from Davis’s benefits as she completes a course and seeks employment, the court was told.

The Metropolitan Police’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Valentine said following the conviction: ‘We have been clear that while the right to protest lawfully must be respected, that does not extend to actions or statements that cross the line from political speech into criminality.

We would love to hear your views on this article about Trans refugee Laura Davis, did she understand what she was holding, or was she a victim of miss-understanding the words on the sign?