Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Tuesday, Sep 16, 2025

"Not My King": Anti-Monarchy Protesters Arrested During UK Coronation

London's Metropolitan Police force detained six organisers from the pressure group and seized hundreds of their placards, Republic said.
UK police drew condemnation Saturday after arresting leading members of the anti-monarchy group Republic as they prepared to protest along the procession route for the coronation of King Charles III.

London's Metropolitan Police force detained six organisers from the pressure group and seized hundreds of their placards, Republic said.

Republic chief executive Graham Smith was among those detained near Trafalgar Square, before the group had a chance to wave the signs declaring "Not my king".

"The whole core team of Republic is still being detained," the group said on Twitter some seven hours after the arrests and well after the coronation ceremony. "Is this democracy?"

The Met tweeted that four people were held "on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance".

"We seized lock-on devices," it added, referring to newly outlawed contraptions used by demonstrators to attach themselves to each other, an object or the ground.

But the detentions prompted swift criticism from Human Rights Watch, which called the arrests "incredibly alarming".

"This is something you would expect to see in Moscow, not London," the rights organisation's UK director, Yasmine Ahmed, said in a statement.

"Peaceful protests allow individuals to hold those in power to account -- something the UK government seems increasingly averse to."

'Dystopian'

The arrests came just days after UK police forces were controversially granted new anti-protest powers by the government following years of disruptive demonstrations by environmental activists.

It expands protest-related offences to include locking-on and carrying lock-on devices, extends police stop and search powers, and allows for new court orders to prevent people from attending demonstrations.

Separately on Saturday, at least 19 members of Just Stop Oil were also arrested in central London, the environmental campaign group said in a statement.

An AFP reporter saw several activists being handcuffed by police on The Mall, the processional route from Buckingham Palace.

"Their intention was only to display T-shirts and flags. This is a massive authoritarian overreach," Just Stop Oil said, claiming that none of those arrested had "glue, paint or any plans to disrupt the coronation".

"New policing laws mean we're now living in a dystopian nightmare -- this disgraceful overreach is what you'd expect in Pyongyang, North Korea, not Westminster."

Reports said other protesters were detained, including a man allegedly held in St James's Park for carrying a megaphone.

"It could scare the horses," a police officer at the scene said, according to a Sky News television reporter present.

Amnesty International's chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said: "We need to see what details emerge around these incidents, but merely being in possession of a megaphone or carrying placards should never be grounds for a police arrest."

'Wrong'

Republic, which wants Britain's constitutional monarchy replaced by an elected head of state, had been vocal about its protest plans, but Smith said this week that they had no plans to disrupt the procession.

Republic's director Harry Stratton, 30, said activists were carrying placards near Trafalgar Square when around 20 officers stopped and searched them.

"Graham and our volunteers asked why and they said 'we will find that out'," Stratton said. "After that they arrested them, saying 'we are seizing all these placards'."

A camera crew from the group Alliance of European Republican Movements asked a senior police officer why they were being held.

"They're under arrest. End of," the officer replied, according to footage posted on Twitter.

The Met, which this week had vowed "low tolerance for any disruption", tweeted that officers made "a number of arrests" as part of its "significant police operation".

Dubbed "Golden Orb", it deployed 11,500 officers on Saturday as well as facial-recognition technology that civil liberties organisations branded "authoritarian".

The detentions infuriated the scores of other demonstrators who rallied near The Mall as well as in Trafalgar Square.

"This bill is all so wrong so, yeah, I don't feel like celebrating anything today," Eva Smeeth, 19, told AFP, holding a placard bearing the slogan "abolish the monarchy not the right to protest".
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
×