Activist's posts encouraged terrorism, court hears

A social media activist used his "significant influence" to encourage terrorism and invited people to support the proscribed organisation Hamas, a court has heard.

Prosecutors told Birmingham Crown Court that Majid Novsarka, otherwise known as Majid Freeman, used code words to "celebrate" the actions of the group.

During the first day of the trial, jurors were shown more than 200 social media posts regarding Hamas, and one post relating to the attacks on the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, in 2015.

Novsarka, 37, of Cecil Road, Leicester, has denied encouraging terrorism, inviting support for the proscribed organisation Hamas and expressing support for a proscribed organisation.

Opening the prosecution case, barrister Tom Williams said Novsarka "encouraged terrorism" by posting about a cartoon published by Libération, a left-wing newspaper based in Paris.

On 11 March 2024, he posted on his X account about the image that he later said was "mocking Muslims in Gaza".

In the post, he referred to the 12 people who were killed in the Charlie Hebdo attack nine years before.

Williams told the court it was the prosecution's belief that the post was meant to encourage people to "do the same" to Libération.

He said that Novsarka's X account, which had 58,000 followers at the time, was generally "supportive of violent resistance".

Continuing his opening, Williams set out 22 examples of more than 200 social media posts from between November 2023 and July 2024, which he said showed Novsarka supporting Hamas.

The posts came after Hamas's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, led an assault on Israel in October 2023.

About 1,200 people were killed and 250 hostages were taken.

In response, Israel launched a military offensive, which has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians.

The prosecutor told jurors it will not be their job during the trial to answer "important questions" about the conflict, only to decide if the defendant has invited support for Hamas.

Within the posts, Williams said Novsarka used the letter H and the word "resistance" to hide that he was referring to the group.

"In some entries on the timeline, the defendant is doing no more than expressing his views about particular issues," he said.

"The prosecution's case is that in some of his posts - not all of them - the defendant goes further than that, by inviting support for Hamas, whether he refers to that organisation by name or by implication."

Williams said the posts were meant to "glorify, celebrate and invite admiration and amazement for the Al-Qassam Brigades and for Hamas as a whole" and would encourage his "large audience" to think the same.

He added his use of code words could show that he "knew exactly what he was doing".

The prosecution told the jury that Novsarka was arrested on 9 July 2024 by counter-terrorism police after his social media accounts were monitored for "some time".

During a search of his house, detectives found an iPhone and WhatsApp and Telegram were downloaded.

The court heard a number of contacts were found for Telegram accounts, including Briged Al Qassam, which was incorrectly spelt, Hamas and Hamas Official Page.

Attempts were made to trace these accounts by police in September 2024 but none of them could be found.

Novsarka's defence will be set out later in the trial, which is expected to last for three weeks.

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