Woman charged with terrorism offence following public referral

A woman has been charged with a terrorism offence as part of an investigation into online support of proscribed terrorist group Hamas.

The investigation followed a public referral to the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU), which highlighted posts linked to a social media account that were allegedly showing support towards Hamas.

Specialist officers assessed the posts and found they could be in breach of terrorism legislation.

Further enquiries identified the user, and a 22-year-old woman from north-west London on 2 November. Sara El-Houssein was charged on Thursday, 21 March with publishing an image of an article in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse a reasonable suspicion that she is a supporter of a proscribed organisation, namely Hamas, contrary to section 13(1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “This investigation came as a result of members of the public referring social media content into our Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit. Any content referred gets carefully assessed and I hope this example shows that we take this extremely seriously and that we will take action if and where we identify potential terrorist or criminal activity.”