Police Scotland has been warned that it risked breaching the human rights of pro-Palestinian activists by interfering with their rights to peaceful protest and to privacy.



The police investigations and review commissioner (PIRC), which oversees police conduct in Scotland, upheld three complaints from the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) after officers in Aberdeen visited one man at home to warn him off attending a rally, barred activists from entering a court and used an activists’ meeting to gather intelligence.

The PIRC added that officers investigating the SPSC’s complaints about the highly unusual incidents then misrepresented what the force had done, and instructed Police Scotland to appoint independent officers to entirely reexamine two of those complaints from the start.



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The force confirmed officers from its professional standards division from different parts of Scotland had been instructed to investigate.



The PIRC disclosed that in one case, a police inspector and sergeant had visited a campaigner at home at 9pm to instruct him not to take part in a demonstration at a shopping centre the next day.

In a clear rebuke to Police Scotland, it said that risked breaching articles of the European convention on human rights (ECHR), in particular its obligation “not to prevent, hinder or restrict peaceful assembly except in certain prescribed circumstances”.

The PIRC said the police account of what happened that evening was “at odds” with the evidence, adding: “The police cannot impose conditions on the location of a peaceful protest that effectively negate the purpose of the protest.”

In another complaint it upheld, the watchdog also criticised a uniformed sergeant for arriving at an activists’ workshop at a cinema without invitation.



The police claimed he was there to provide “advice and assistance”. The PIRC said he had actually gone because someone had complained the meeting was taking place. While there he had “gathered information about the group during the visit which was thereafter recorded on police systems. The information recorded included an individual’s personal details.”

The PIRC said that clearly risked breaching the rights to freedom of assembly and respect for private life under the ECHR.

It was doubtful whether it was lawful or proportionate “to gather and record information about the activities of members of a group who do not appear from the evidence available to have been considered by the police to pose any threat to public safety or likely to commit any crime,” the commissioner added.

In a third case upheld by the PIRC, the police had also blocked pro-Palestinian campaigners from entering a court building to watch a trial, even though they had been allowed to demonstrate peacefully outside the building and even though supporters of an opposing group were allowed into the court.

In that case, the police escaped a formal order to reexamine the entire complaint but were told to properly set out why those activists were barred from the building.

The commissioner turned down two other complaints when police approached the group’s members while they were leafleting outside a shopping centre in July and August 2016 after anonymous complainants, possibly their political opponents, called the police.

The PIRC also turned down a further allied complaint from the SPSC that the police were showing political bias because their actions were “driven by a group of individuals holding a political ideology opposing that of her own organisation.”

In those three cases, the commissioner said the force had properly handled the SPSC’s original complaints to a reasonable standard.

“Whilst it is clear that on several occasions the police acted on concerns raised by members of the public who may have held an opposing political belief to that of the applicant’s group, the evidence available does not support the contention that Police Scotland was not impartial or independent when taking action,” the PIRC ruled.

Sofiah MacLeod, chair of the SPSC, said police activities against the campaign had been escalating since 2014. “They have really been trying to intimidate individuals as far as we’re concerned. That’s how it comes across, and we’re very pleased that PIRC has investigated the matter and asked the police to look again at the complaints,” she said.