U.K. police have announced that Irish rap group Kneecap will not be criminally charged for shouting “Free Palestine” and “‘F— Keir Starmer” during its politically-charged Glastonbury Festival set last month.
Avon and Somerset Police said in a Friday (July 18) update that they’ve closed a previously announced investigation into Kneecap’s packed June 28 set at Glastonbury’s West Holts Stage.
“Detectives sought advice from the Crown Prosecution Service during their enquiries and after that advice, we have made the decision to take no further action on the grounds there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for any offence,” the police update reads.
Authorities in Avon and Somerset are continuing to investigate fiery remarks made during Bob Vylan’s June 29 Glastonbury set, in which frontman Bobby Vylan (Pascal Robinson-Foster) chanted “death to the IDF,” a reference to the Israeli Defense Forces.
Meanwhile, Kneecap MC Mo Chara (Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) still faces a terror charge for a separate show at London’s O2 Forum in November. Video footage from that performance showed Mo Chara shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” and displaying a Hezbollah flag.
Kneecap appeared to allude to these other open matters in a statement reacting to the news of the closed Glastonbury investigation on Friday, writing on the group’s official social media pages, “One element of the political policing intimidation attempt is over.”
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“We played a historic set at Glastonbury,” reads Kneecap’s statement. “Every single person who saw our set knew no law was broken, not even close….yet the police saw fit to publicly announce they were opening an investigation.”
“This is political. This is targeted. This is state intimidation,” the group’s statement continued. “We will continue to fight. We will continue to win.”