Key facts
- Bhandal's lawyers said Scotland Yard accepted that supporting and funding lawful political protest groups did not automatically establish a link to terrorism.
- The lawyers named the BDS movement and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in that acceptance, per the Press Association.
- Bhandal was previously arrested in 2025 over a Palestine Action-linked incident at the Elbit Systems factory in Bristol and released with no further action.
- Bhandal said he believes an intelligence flag was placed on his name after the 2025 arrest, leading to the St Pancras detention.
- Civil liberties lawyer Alex Kenney of Hodge Jones + Allen, which acted for Bhandal, said adequate safeguards were essential to prevent arbitrary use of anti-terrorism laws.
The Metropolitan police have settled a legal claim brought by Tej Singh Bhandal, a 68-year-old pro-Palestinian activist who said he was treated "like a criminal" when arrested under anti-terrorism legislation, the Press Association reported on November 5, 2026. The force also agreed to close the criminal investigation against him, the report said.
Bhandal was returning to the UK on Eurostar when police pulled him from a queue at St Pancras International in London. After he refused to give authorities the pin code to his mobile phone, he was arrested and charged under schedule seven of the Terrorism Act 2000, he said. He spent several hours in police detention and brought a legal challenge over the arrest.
Bhandal's lawyers said Scotland Yard accepted that supporting and funding lawful political protest organisations, naming the BDS movement and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, did not automatically establish a link to terrorism. The Met police has been approached for comment.
Bhandal described the arrest as "incredibly humiliating" and "an abuse of power". He told the Press Association: "I was handcuffed and led through the station in full view of the public. I felt like the tabloid newspaper stereotype of a person of colour, and I was treated like a criminal."
Bhandal, who is involved with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was previously arrested in 2025 as part of a police investigation into a Palestine Action-linked incident at the Elbit Systems factory in Bristol. He was questioned by counter-terrorism police over four days, during which his house was searched and his devices seized, but was released with no further action taken. He believes an intelligence flag was placed on his name after the incident, leading to his arrest at St Pancras.
The settlement came as more than two dozen protesters were arrested outside the supreme court on Wednesday morning while an appeal was being heard against the ban on Palestine Action. Bhandal said people were being "singled out by the authorities for activism" and that "the creeping criminalisation of protest action is a consequence of government policy".
Alex Kenney, a civil liberties lawyer at Hodge Jones + Allen, which acted for Bhandal, said "adequate safeguards" were essential to prevent the "arbitrary" use of anti-terrorism laws. "Our hope is that Tej's case leads to more stringent adherence to the statutory obligations under the Terrorism Act and changes how the police conduct themselves in future," she said.