Met Police settle claim by pro-Palestinian activist arrested under terrorism law

The Metropolitan Police has agreed to settle a legal claim brought by Tej Singh Bhandal, a 68-year-old pro-Palestinian activist, over his arrest under anti-terrorism legislation. The force has also agreed to close the criminal investigation against him.

Bhandal was returning to Britain on the Eurostar train earlier this year when police pulled him from a queue at St Pancras International in London. Officers arrested and charged him under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, a provision that lets officers at ports and borders question travellers, after he refused to give them the PIN code for his mobile phone. He spent several hours in police detention and later brought a legal challenge over the arrest.

His lawyers said Scotland Yard accepted that supporting and funding lawful political protest organisations did not automatically establish a link to terrorism. The organisations named were the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Bhandal is involved with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and he was represented by civil liberties lawyer Alex Kenney of the firm Hodge Jones + Allen.

The arrest was not Bhandal's first encounter with counter-terrorism police. In 2025 he was arrested as part of a police investigation into a Palestine Action-linked incident at the Elbit Systems factory in Bristol. He was questioned over four days, during which his house was searched and devices were seized. He was then released with no further action taken.

On Wednesday morning, around the time the Met's decision to settle was made, more than two dozen protesters were arrested outside the Supreme Court.