Doctor arrested with force at Palestine protest – we’re pushing back

On the night of 17 December 2025, Dr Ayo Moiett was with Zarah Sultana MP and others, pleading with prison officers outside Bronzefield prison. Qesser Zuhrah – a Palestine activist on day 48 of a gruelling hunger strike – desperately needed an ambulance. But as soon as it arrived, the police bundled this medical professional into the back of a van.

Ayo is a doctor. He has cared for patients at the end of their lives and knows the clinical signs of a body reaching its limits. When he spoke to Qesser on the phone from outside the prison and heard the state she was in, he knew she could be just hours from death.

When an ambulance finally arrived, Ayo started to head home – tired from the eight hours he’d spent begging for medical aid. But police officers grabbed him, arrested him and shoved him into a van.

For Ayo, it wasn’t a surprise that the police picked him out. As a Black man, he is acutely aware of the long history of institutional racism in British policing and the disproportionate way Black people are stopped, searched and subjected to forceful arrest.

After spending hours in a police van, Ayo was then held for a further five hours in a cell at the police station before finally being released – but his ordeal didn’t stop there.

The Crown Prosecution Service had six months to decide whether to charge him with an offence. They waited until just three days before that deadline to tell Ayo they would be taking no further action.

There was never enough evidence for a conviction. So why was a doctor arrested, traumatised and left living under the threat of a criminal charge for six months?

The answer lies in the systemic biases embedded within a broken justice system that punishes those who speak out. This is playing out amid a widespread crackdown on our right to protest, and in particular the silencing of those who stand in solidarity with Palestine.

On 15 June 2026, the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court ruling on Palestine Action, deeming its proscription lawful. Days later, Palestine activists became the first protesters in Britain to be sentenced as terrorists without ever being convicted of a terror offence. And as of last month, the police now have even broader powers to restrict demonstrations through measures targeting so-called “repeat disruption” and allowing the creation of “no mask zones”. These powers, set out in the Crime and Policing Act 2026, are likely to have a significant impact on the Palestine demonstrations that have taken place across the country since October 2023.

More than ever, we cannot afford to stand by while the state weaponises its power to silence dissent. Ayo’s case is a warning of what is at stake if we do.

We think the decision to arrest and detain Ayo may have been unjust and could have been influenced by racially discriminatory factors, so we’re helping him investigate a claim against the police.

Together, we must defend our right to protest, our right to dissent, and our freedom to stand in solidarity.