By Joe Lauria, Consortium News, 12/16/25

The British Crown Prosecution Service has dropped its terrorism investigation of independent journalist Richard Medhurst 16 months after he was stopped at Heathrow Airport and interrogated about his reporting on Gaza. 

Medhurst reported the CPS decision in an X post. 

Medhurst said Britain dropped the case by turning it over to Austrian authorities, who raided Medhurst’s home in Vienna last February, taking his devices and interrogating him about his reporting on Gaza. 

He said British authorities turned over their files to the Austrians and gave them “primacy” over the case.  They also lifted bail against him.

Medhurst said Austria can’t have primacy because he was arrested first by Britain and that the claims against him are different. “The U.K. claims that journalism is terrorism,” he said. “The Austrians say journalism makes you a member of a terrorist organization.”

Medhurst said that his government went out of its way to give Austria “whatever so-called files they have on me shows”  you how “vicious” they are.  “Literally blowing people up on a daily basis and then they have the nerve to call me a terrorist because I’m sitting in a room by myself talking to a camera.”

Austrian immigration authorities called him to a meeting in February 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. 

Medhurst was arrested by Britain in August 2024 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 actually 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. …

(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.” 

Under these provisions other journalists, including Craig Murray and Asa Winstanley have been interrogated and likewise threatened with prosecution for critical reporting about Israel in Gaza, which is being misconstrued by the state as support for Hamas. 

Criticism of one side in a conflict does not automatically amount to support for the other. 

Under (1A) (a) above, thousands of Britons have been arrested this year only for publicly proclaiming support for Palestine Action, an activist group opposing Israel’s genocide that has been designated a terrorist organization for damaging RAF property in a protest. 

“Now that the U.K. has dropped the case, I really hope the Austrians will realize that they’ve been taken for a ride and sent on a wild goose chase with ridiculous accusations,” Medhurst said. “The fact this case is allowed for almost a year and a half—it’s a crime in and of itself.”

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.