• Bianca Ali successfully fights fine given to her by cops after they alleged she organised a protest outside Cardiff Bay police station.
• The January 2021 fine was inflated from £500 to over £2000, before being challenged and thrown out by the court in Cardiff Magistrates.
• Lawyers for the activist say that South Wales Police are guilty of ‘over policing’ protest and unreasonably targeting BLM activists.
• Victory for young activist highlights the prosecution of others who protested the death of Mohamud Hassan, who died after telling family he had been physically assaulted by the police
Image: From left to right: Ann-Marie Zogina, Bianca Ali, Tara Turner outside court.
A leading Black Lives Matter activist in Wales has won a significant victory in Cardiff Magistrates court after she had a substantial protest fine overturned by a judge.
Bianca Ali, a campaigner with the grassroots anti-racist group, announced last week that the court threw out the fine given to her by South Wales Police, after Bindmans solicitors succesfully afrgued that she had a right to protest under the Human Rights Act.
Bianca Ali had attended the protest for Mohamud Hassan in January this year, after shocking news emerged of the circumstances surrounding the 24 year old’s death. Mohamud was taken from his home by police and held overnight. He returned to his flat with bruises and blood stained clothes, telling witnesses he had been assaulted by cops. He died hours later.
Ali said in a statement after the verdict: “I have endured eight months of stress and worry about this. It’s been a long road but today (the day before my 30th) I have been vindicated. I am so glad I took this all the way.”
“My thoughts are with the family and friends of Mohamud Hassan as we await the findings of the Independent Office for Police Conduct.”
The family are still awaiting the outcome of the IOPC report and coroner’s inquest into the death, having been told that crucial evidence may have gone missing. Meanwhile South Wales Police have been busy pursuing other protesters, including prosecuting a 19 year old for briefly shining a phone torch in the direction of an officer.
The court victory of Bianca Ali, who was determined to fight her case, now raises questions about the legitimacy of other convictions against people who felt forced to accept the charges.
Ali was issued the £500 fine immediately after the protest, but this was subsequently bumped up to £2026, after allegedly organising the January 2021 protests – where hundreds came out as a show of support and solidarity for Mohamud’s grieving family – during a national lockdown when new restrictions were placed on outside gatherings.
But lawyers argued that the police were wrong to pursue the activist.
Patrick Ormerod, solicitor for Ali, said: “South Wales Police put considerable resources into investigating and prosecuting Black Lives Matter activists – at the taxpayer’s expense – when they should have been facilitating a Covid-19-safe protest and focusing limited resources on investigating serious crime and the circumstances surrounding the death of Mohamud Hassan.”
“The case appears to be another example of a misunderstanding of the interaction between Coronavirus regulations and the Human Rights Act 1998, and another example – like Clapham Common – of the over-policing of protest relating to the conduct of the police.”
According to Ali’s solicitors she denied being involved in organising the protest, although as a prominent member of the local community and the Black Lives Matter movement, she had attended and spoken at the protest.
The defense successfully argued that under Articles 10 and 11 of the Human Rights Act it was fair for the activist to attend the demonstrations by exercising her right to protest.
Bianca Ali also said that after refusing to accept the fine, Cardiff police officers were “driving up and down my cul-de-sac and parking outside my home in an attempt to intimidate me.”
This tactic has been used on other protesters, with one mother previously describing how South Wales Police stationed riot vans round the back if her house because her 14 year old daughter had insulted an officer and her 19 year old son had shone a torch at them.
The prosecution of protesters stands in sharp contrast to the lack of punishment individual police officers have faced over Mohamud Hassan’s death.
Cops being probed over their involvement in Mohamud’s death have been handed misconduct notices, but have escaped suspension from the force pending the outcome of the watchdog investigation.
South Wales Police muddied the waters around the suspensions before admitting that the officers who are under investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) are still on the beat.
Bianca Ali’s case is the latest in a long list of seemingly retributive punishments handed out to Black Lives Matter protestors in the city.
In March, voice.wales published the testimony of an attendee to one of these protests in Cardiff Bay who attested that he had been dragged from his bed for the alleged crime of shining a torch on the face of a cop on duty that night.
The activist, fearing further repercussions from police, said: “[T]he other day I was arrested by South Wales Police and I was dragged out of my bed. I was actually raided when six plainclothes officers came to my house.”
“They forcefully enter my room. Like I’m not a criminal. I’m actually a businessman. I’ve got an up-coming business and sell shoes. And these guys have come into my room acting like I’m Pablo Escobar.”
Another protestor was slapped with a £150 fine by the police for shining his phone light on cops, money that would have had to have been deducted from his Universal Credit payments if it were not for a community crowdfunder.
His mother has told voice that the family are now seeking to overturn the conviction.
A third protestor stood in the dock to face charges of shining a torch on cops, but after a successful defense fought his way out of the charge in July.
BLM stressed at the time that, despite the crackdown, people must continue to take to the streets as the best means of defending the movement from attacks.
“We do not have to be afraid of the cops and we do not have to be afraid of their bullying tactics,” said the spokesperson. “They will try to intimidate us, but just as this activist has shown, if you want to come for us, prepare for a battle, because you come for all of us.”
“We will not stand down and we will come again. This verdict, quite simply, is an indictment on the disgusting nature of policing in Wales right now, and further evidence that the cops would rather cover their own backs than protect ours.”
But the binning of Ali’s Covid fine by the court will give hope to others who have been targeted by South Wales Police after they protested outside the station.
Ali told voice.wales: “Because it was thrown out of court it will definitely help others who have been charged as the police had no evidence to proceed with myself as an alleged organiser, never mind any other activists that just took part in the protests.”
South Wales Police refused to answer questions from voice.wales, stating that: “This is a matter for the courts to comment on.”
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