Student cleared of supporting Hamas at London rally
Sarah Cotte was found not guilty of expressing support for a proscribed organisation following a retrial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
News London evidence indexOpen analysis ▾
Trust 64: named defendant and court details present, but no independent outlets or direct document citations.
Higher is stronger
Critic 87: clear context, quotes, specifics, and coherent narrative, though no next steps mentioned.
Higher is stronger
Hype 30: measured language with mild emphasis, no sensationalist headline-body mismatch.
Lower is better
An activist has been cleared of voicing support for Hamas at a student rally outside her university. Sarah Cotte, 22, was found not guilty of expressing support for a proscribed organisation following a retrial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. The jury deliberated for less than two hours on Friday to reach its verdict.
Charges and Court Proceedings
Sebastien Bassong fined £565 for London Underground fare evasion
The former Tottenham defender was convicted at Wimbledon Magistrates Court after a TfL officer saw him tailgate a friend through St Paul’s Station barriers on 2 May.
Cotte was arrested on January 31, 2024, and faced two counts of expressing support for a proscribed organisation. The prosecution had asserted that comments made by Cotte at a rally on October 9, 2023, and later posted on Instagram, were thinly veiled references to Hamas, even though the organisation was not named. Cotte, who was a 19-year-old student at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the time, denied that her comments were about Hamas, stating she was supporting “the right to resist”.
Jurors were told that the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,100 Israelis and 79 foreign nationals, including 800 civilians. The court heard that 251 people were taken hostage. The speech in question was delivered to a rally of between 60 and 70 people outside SOAS.
Defendant's Account
Barnet records 2,378 burglaries in one year
Metropolitan Police data shows the borough had the fifth highest number of offences across London.
During her evidence, Cotte stated that she did not support Hamas but believed the deaths of civilians on October 7 could be justified. She told jurors that while the killing of civilians is always a tragedy, it was not a surprise. She added that she did not believe it was her role to impose conditions on the Palestinian people and their struggle, and that she was supporting the right to resist. Cotte claimed that fellow SOAS students would understand her references to Palestinian armed resistance did not specifically mean Hamas, but she accepted she did not know everyone present at the rally.
At an earlier trial, Cotte was found not guilty of a second charge related to expressing support for Hamas via a WhatsApp group. Throughout her trials, pro-Palestine activists staged protests outside the court.
Questions this report answers
+What was Sarah Cotte accused of?
Sarah Cotte was accused of two counts of expressing support for Hamas, a proscribed organisation. The charges related to a speech she gave at a student rally outside SOAS on October 9, 2023, and a comment made on a WhatsApp group.
+What was the outcome of the trial?
Following a week-long retrial, Sarah Cotte was found not guilty of both charges by a jury at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. The jury deliberated for less than two hours before reaching its verdict.
+When and where did the rally speech take place?
The speech took place on October 9, 2023, outside the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in central London. The rally was attended by between 60 and 70 people.
News London Desk
This article was written at the News London news desk from the reporting of the outlets listed below it. Drafting is done by a language model under human editorial supervision — there is no reporter behind this byline, and we would rather say so than invent one.
How stories are produced and scoredWho runs News LondonCorrections
The London Ledger
A considered capital-wide edit delivered each morning.
More Coverage in Crime & Safety
Sebastien Bassong fined £565 for London Underground fare evasion
Barnet records 2,378 burglaries in one year
Nearly 3,500 knife crime victims recorded in London
