Met police arrest two Green election candidates over alleged antisemitism

Two women standing as Green party candidates in the local elections have been arrested over alleged antisemitic social media posts. The women, running in seats for Lambeth council, south London, were arrested by the Metropolitan police on Thursday morning. The Green party declined to comment, citing the ongoing police inquiry, but the women are understood to be Saiqa Ali, a Lambeth Green candidate for Streatham St Leonard’s ward, and Sabine Mairey, who was standing in Lambeth’s Clapham Town. The Met said in a statement: “Police have arrested two women, aged 57 and 54, on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred online, an offence under section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986. They remain in police custody. “The arrests follow an investigation launched after concerns were reported to police on Tuesday 21 April about antisemitic material that had been posted online.” Ali’s Instagram account is set to private but screenshots indicated she had posted an image of an armed man wearing a headband of the banned Islamist group Hamas along with the slogan: “Resistance is freedom”. Another screenshot indicated that Mairey had shared a post which included the text: “Ramming a synagogue isn’t antisemitism. It’s revenge.” A Lambeth council “notice of poll” document recorded that Ali had a home address in Croydon and had been nominated to stand as a Green party candidate. …