Man arrested over online posts

A man has been arrested as part of an investigation into online posts related to the proscribed terrorist group Hamas.

Counter Terrorism Policing received a public referral on 4th June in relation to online posts allegedly showing support for Hamas.

The report was referred to specialist officers in the national Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit for initial assessment and then past to detectives within the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command for further investigation.

A 43-year-old man was arrested in west London on 12 June, on suspicion of showing support to a terrorist organisation, contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act, 2000.

The man was taken into police custody and officers carried out a search at an address in west London.

He has since been bailed to a date in September.

Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter TerrorismCommand, said: “Ever since the terrible attacks in Israel last October, and the subsequent conflict, there has been a significant increase in the amount of extremist and terrorist material being referred to us by the public.

“Each and every referral gets assessed by specialist officers and anything that is considered a potential terrorism offence here in the UK will get passed on for further investigation. From that investigation, if and where we find evidence of a crime being committed, then we’ll look to identify, arrest and bring the person responsible to justice.”