A British police officer was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of support for Hamas, local police announced.
The officer, a serving constable with the Gloucestershire Police, was arrested by Counter Terrorism Policing South West (CTPSW) on account of contravening Section 12 of the Terrorism Act.
The alleged support for Hamas related to online activity, Gloucestershire Police said.
Gloucestershire Police Assistant Chief Constable Arman Mathieson acknowledged that the arrest of a serving officer on suspicion of such a serious offence would cause concern in the community.Â
He reassured the public that, given the suspected support for Hamas relates to online activity, “the searches taking place are predominately to locate digital devices for analysis.”
Mathieson encouraged people not to draw conclusions at this early stage of the investigation.
Responses to the arrest
Campaign Against Antisemitism said that, “While concerns about support for terror groups are clearly limited to a tiny minority of police officers, this is obviously not reassuring at all to the general public or to British Jews in particular, who are suffering from the worst surge in antisemitism in living memory.”
Earlier this year, West Yorkshire police officer Mohammed Adil, 26, pleaded guilty to sharing two images with captions showing support for Hamas. He received an eighteen-month community order and 160 hours of unpaid work for the two terrorism offences.
