The British journalist said he was accused by Austrian agents of encouraging terrorism, disseminating propaganda and being involved in organized crime, reports Joe Lauria.
Richard Medhurst on his X video describing the raid of his home and his detention by Austrian police. (X video)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
British independent journalist Richard Medhurst said Thursday he was detained this week by Austrian police and intelligence agents and accused of being a member of Hamas.
Medhurst, who lives in Austria and is a fierce critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, said police raided his home on Monday, took his devices and interrogated him. “They essentially lured me into a trap,” he said on a video posted on X.
The journalist said immigration authorities called him to a meeting where they threatened to revoke his residency because of his reporting on Palestine and Lebanon.
When he thought the interview at the immigration office was over, he said a group of plainesclothes officers entered the room flashing their badges. He was detained and served with a search warrant.
Medhurst said he was accused by them of encouraging terrorism, disseminating propaganda and being involved in organized crime.
I was detained this week by the Austrian police and intelligence services.
They raided my house, office, and took all my devices.
They are accusing me of being a member of Hamas and threatened me with 10 years in prison.
Journalism is not a crime. pic.twitter.com/gztm4bmLuY
— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) February 6, 2025
Last week, Medhurst said British police extended its investigation of him into alleged violation of the British Terrorism Act. “And then suddenly this happens in Vienna,” he said on the video. “I don’t think that is mere coincidence.”
Medhurst was arrested last August entering his own country at Heathrow Airport and detained nearly 24 hours for allegedly violating the British Terrorism Act by supporting a “proscribed organization,” namely Hamas.
[See: Journalist Richie Medhurst Arrested at Heathrow Airport Under ‘Terrorism Act’]
Section 12 of the British Terrorism Act criminalizes holding certain opinions or beliefs. It reads:
“12 Support.
(1) A person commits an offence if—
(a) he invites support for a proscribed organisation, and
(b) the support is not, or is not restricted to, the provision of money or other property (within the meaning of section 15).
[F1(1A) A person commits an offence if the person—
(a) expresses an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation, and
(b ) in doing so is reckless as to whether a person to whom the expression is directed will be encouraged to support a proscribed organisation.“
Medhurst said he found it difficult to believe that the British authorities had not communicated with the Austrian agents about him. The journalist said the Austrian warrant mentioned his arrest in London.
After the raid, he was brought down to the station to be fingerprinted, photographed and interrogated for seven hours, but he said he refused to answer their questions before he was released.
“I categorically deny all of these accusations by the Austrian and British governments, I’m a journalist, not a terrorist, and they bloody-well know it,” Medhurst said in his video. He added that he was a Christian being accused of belonging to Hamas, an Islamist organization resisting Israel’s occupation of Gaza.
Medhurst said the allegations by both countries were similar, but there has now been a “massive escalation” to accuse him of being a “member of a proscribed organization.” The British only accuse him of supporting the proscribed organization, Hamas, through his journalism.
“This is insanity,” he said. “This is an attack on the entire profession, on freedom of speech, on democracy itself.”
Medhurst said he could face up to 14 years of prison in Britain, plus 2-5 years if he doesn’t give them the passwords to his devices and perhaps 10 years in Austria.
On Thursday former British diplomat Craig Murray, who is also being investigated by British authorities under the Terrorism Act because of his journalism, reported that:
“Four U.N. special rapporteurs have written jointly to the U.K. government demanding explanation of its inappropriate persecution of journalists and political activists under the Terrorism Act.
They state that those persecuted:
‘appear to have no credible connection to “terrorist” or “hostile” activity.’
The cases taken up by the United Nations are those of Johanna Ross (Ganyukova), John Laughland, Kit Klarenberg, Craig Murray (yes, me), Richard Barnard and Richard Medhurst.”
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @unjoe.
The message sent of course is the empire will not tolerate defending the victims of its settler colonialist project so they criminalize it. The West stands exposed before the world as the vicious lawless entity it has always been.
It is a sad, sad day on Earth when speaking the truth is treated as a criminal offense.
“God offers to every mind the choice between truth and repose. Take which you please – you can never have both.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American poet, minister, philosopher
I wish I could help Richard Medhurst, how can we help him/
Richard i recommend Uruguay
Hell no, we have been here 10 years, no way!
When you get your devices back, please consider getting the hell out of Europe, Richard. The writing is on the wall, and thinking that things will change for the better, especially under the Chump admin, is delusional.
You are a valued information source and the gangsters who are destroying your life know that. Stay in Europe and you’ll end up like Assznge.
Please let us know what we can do to assist you, Richard, or anyone else targeted by the various states for the practice of journalism. Although, we all appreciate the journalistic efforts, we want to do more than just read, look at, or listen to, your outputs. The freedom-loving world must be active in supporting your efforts, and those of the Palestinian people in their determination for a just future.
“Free speech?!!!…We don’t need no stinking free speech!!!” “We don’t need no stinking badges either!!!”
It seems that Kier Starmer’a interview where he said Western society had to purge itself of the Muslim religion and all its people is true. In the end the people in control of the Western “de Christianised” nations are scared to death that the average person in their society will read the Koran and adopt it as their secular and political belief systems. Doing so would supplant Starmer, all his Western political hack buddies, and Islam would take over. So this belief (ploy) is behind the insane reductions in free speech in the UK, the US persecution of Julian Assange, the excommunication of Edward Snowdon, and endless persecutions, murders of other journalists in the West. It is as Chris Hedges pointed out in his recent article on Western Genocide – the West will kill and destroy any individual or group it feels threatens its hegemony. This is our wonderful Western society. It has all been a lie and the West is the most violent repressive society on earth. If that isn’t the case, why is Trump and Musk dismantling the USAID, CIA, FBI, NEFD, etc? We all can see what is happening.
As the old saying goes:
‘You get the most flak when you’re directly above the target’.
Anyway, I hope he finds a way out.