UK police arrest man after Churchill statue sprayed with graffiti / Photo: © AFP
UK police arrest man after Churchill statue sprayed with graffiti
A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage, UK police said Friday, after pro-Palestinian graffiti was sprayed on a Winston Churchill statue in central London.
The iconic monument to the World War II British prime minister in Parliament Square "was graffitied with red paint" overnight, the Metropolitan Police said on X.
"Officers were on scene within two minutes of being alerted shortly after 4am (0400 GMT)," the force said.
The graffiti, which workers were cleaning early Friday, called the wartime leader a "zionist war criminal".
The words "free Palestine" and "stop the genocide" were also sprayed on the statue.
The man detained was also held on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action, a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act, police added.
The Greater London Authority condemned the "vandalism" and said work was underway to remove the graffiti "as quickly as possible".
Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office called the damage "completely abhorrent" and said it was "glad" police had made an arrest.
"Churchill was a great Briton," a spokesman said. "This government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account."
- Pre-recorded message -
A Dutch activist, naming himself as Olax Outis, claimed responsibility for the stunt in a message shared on social media by campaign group Prisoners for Palestine.
"If you see this message that peaceful protest has begun... it's a reasonable assumption that I'm currently in a jail, somewhere in London," the pre-recorded message said.
Outis said he was a member of Dutch group "Free the Filton 24 NL", a group supporting the 24 Palestine Action activists charged over a break-in at a UK factory belonging to Israeli defence firm Elbit in 2024.
The group posted a video on its Instagram account appearing to show a man dressed in overalls, with "I support Palestine Action" written on the back, painting the statue.
Other slogans painted onto the statue included "globalise the intifada".
In December, police said people chanting this phrase would be arrested as part of efforts to counter antisemitism and incitement to violence through slogans.
The police stance followed a deadly October attack on a synagogue in the English city of Manchester, and a December shooting at a Jewish festival at Australia's Bondi Beach in Sydney in which 15 people were killed.
The 3.6 metre (12-foot) Churchill statue has been vandalised a number of times in recent years, including during Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion climate demonstrations in 2020.
(V.Sørensen--DTZ)
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