Police seize coconuts and arrest protesters outside court appearance of woman charged over placard

Five people have been arrested outside court where a teacher pictured carrying a placard featuring Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts is appearing.

Police were also seen to be seizing coconuts.

Marieha Hussain, 37, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, is charged with a racially aggravated public order offence.

Footage online shows Metropolitan Police officers detaining some of 100 activists gathered and removing coconuts placed on the street outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London.

Scotland Yard said: “Five people have been arrested outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court this morning on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offences in relation to displaying placards and coconuts. They remain in custody.”

Hussain, who grew up in her family’s £2 million detached home in Great Missenden, raised her poster at a pro-Palestinian march in central London last November.

It depicted the faces of the Prime Minister and former Home Secretary Braverman alongside coconuts under a tree on a beach.

Days later, the Metropolitan Police posted an image of Hussain announcing she was being hunted in relation to a hate crime.

Reference to coconuts can be considered a racist slur as it implies a person has betrayed their race.

In an interview before she was charged, Al Jazeera reported Hussain commenting: “I had no idea that our word, ‘coconut’, would be hijacked by a demographic that doesn’t use these words and then used against me to criminalise me.

“Being a woman of colour and a Muslim coupled with my deep criticism of our government aiding and abetting a genocide against the Palestinian people, these factors combined have made me the perfect scapegoat for far-right ideologies.”

Political activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu was outside court and posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Disgusting! Who do the Met Police really serve and protect? Not us!”