Mark Birbeck

🚨 PRESS RELEASE At a recent wasted costs hearing, the judge ruled that the CPS must pay the costs of the legal team appointed by the CAA to assist Mark Birbeck and Our Fight. Mark had been charged in September 2024 — alongside Niyak Ghorbani — with assaulting emergency workers when being arrested in front of a Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) march — whilst holding a placard declaring 'Hamas are terrorists'. These kinds of rulings are unusual. It's generally recognised that the police and CPS will make mistakes and so 'wasted costs' cannot usually be recovered for a defence — unless the actions of the CPS are 'improper'. In this case the CPS were repeatedly told by the courts to release specific video evidence, and on each occasion failed to do so. At one hearing the judge described the CPS's management of the evidence as "shambolic". The ruling said that the video evidence did NOT show Mark "struggling with officers for a minute" as claimed, and instead showed "the defendant was surrounded by four male police officers before a female officer joined, and all five officers took him to the ground”. Mark Birbeck, Director of Our Fight, said: "Although it was important that the case was dropped last October, I did not feel that decisively showed my innocence. But this decision for wasted costs — and the judge's strong criticism of the CPS — establishes that the charges were fabricated, and makes it clear I had no violent intent. My goal has always been to use my democratic rights to protest peacefully, and to stand in solidarity with the Jewish community against the rapid rise in anti-Semitism." Mark and Our Fight would particularly like to thank the legal team for pursuing this case so professionally, and the CAA for funding this team. If you would like to contribute to our legal costs then please donate directly to the CAA: f.mtr.cool/hsvtyihrcl