LONDON: Majid Freeman, who is accused of spreading lies and misinformation about the role Hindus played in the 2022 Leicester riots and was a key campaigner behind Shockat Adam, the newly elected Gujarati-origin Independent Leicester South MP, has been arrested and charged with terror offences.
Freeman, 36, whose real name is Majid Novsarka, was charged on Wednesday with encouragement of terrorism and supporting a proscribed organisation.
His home in Leicester was searched on Tuesday by police and he was arrested. On Wednesday he was released on bail and is due to appear at Westminster magistrates’ court on July 24.
Adam unseated former shadow paymaster Jonathan Ashworth in a big upset of the UK general election. Freeman had followed Ashworth around when he was canvassing. A video shows him shouting: “Do you condemn Netanyahu? Yes or No?” Ashworth is seen taking his own video saying: “I am not going to have these guys bully me off the streets. I am not going to be intimidated.”
Freeman replies: “No one is bullying you. We are asking you why you abstained on the vote to vote for a ceasefire in Gaza. You have the death of Palestinian men, women and children on your hands. Is Netanyahu a war criminal?”
After the charges were announced, Ashworth, chief executive of Labour think tank Labour Together, wrote on X: “This is deeply disturbing and alarming. Shockat Adam must now condemn this individual and condemn those organising demonstrations defending him. The safety of people must always come first.”
The Henry Jackson Society, in its report on the Leicester Sept 2022 riots, named Freeman as one of several influencers that inflamed community tensions by spreading fake news on social media. “Many of Freeman’s allegations of violence against Muslims perpetrated by Hindus in Leicester have later been found to have no evidence,” it said. Yet“mainstream media have consistently afforded him a platform, with Freeman appearing in TV interviews on major channels… In the immediate aftermath of the protests mainstream media outlets put early emphasis on Hindutva extremism in the UK, furtherperpetuating the threat against the Hindu community. Allegations of Hindutva extremism and RSS terrorism in the UK have resulted in incitements to violence and anti-Hindu hate online, vandalism of Hindu temples, and reports of assaults on the Hindu community,” it added.
Freeman, 36, whose real name is Majid Novsarka, was charged on Wednesday with encouragement of terrorism and supporting a proscribed organisation.
His home in Leicester was searched on Tuesday by police and he was arrested. On Wednesday he was released on bail and is due to appear at Westminster magistrates’ court on July 24.
Adam unseated former shadow paymaster Jonathan Ashworth in a big upset of the UK general election. Freeman had followed Ashworth around when he was canvassing. A video shows him shouting: “Do you condemn Netanyahu? Yes or No?” Ashworth is seen taking his own video saying: “I am not going to have these guys bully me off the streets. I am not going to be intimidated.”
Freeman replies: “No one is bullying you. We are asking you why you abstained on the vote to vote for a ceasefire in Gaza. You have the death of Palestinian men, women and children on your hands. Is Netanyahu a war criminal?”
After the charges were announced, Ashworth, chief executive of Labour think tank Labour Together, wrote on X: “This is deeply disturbing and alarming. Shockat Adam must now condemn this individual and condemn those organising demonstrations defending him. The safety of people must always come first.”
The Henry Jackson Society, in its report on the Leicester Sept 2022 riots, named Freeman as one of several influencers that inflamed community tensions by spreading fake news on social media. “Many of Freeman’s allegations of violence against Muslims perpetrated by Hindus in Leicester have later been found to have no evidence,” it said. Yet“mainstream media have consistently afforded him a platform, with Freeman appearing in TV interviews on major channels… In the immediate aftermath of the protests mainstream media outlets put early emphasis on Hindutva extremism in the UK, furtherperpetuating the threat against the Hindu community. Allegations of Hindutva extremism and RSS terrorism in the UK have resulted in incitements to violence and anti-Hindu hate online, vandalism of Hindu temples, and reports of assaults on the Hindu community,” it added.