A 38-year-old man remains in custody after being arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage following the defacement of Sir Winston Churchill’s statue outside the Houses of Parliament in the early hours of Friday morning.
Metropolitan Police officers arrived at the scene within two minutes of the graffiti attack, which occurred shortly after 4am. A Dutch pro-Palestine activist claiming to be part of Free the Filton 24 NL later took responsibility for spray-painting slogans including “Zionist war criminal,” “Stop the Genocide,” “Never again is Now” and “Globalise the Intifada” on the monument.
Westminster heritage wardens were pictured covering the graffiti with tape and plastic bin bags on Friday morning. The area has been cordoned off and was being cleaned.
Olax Outis stated online he came to the UK to “deface a statue of one of history’s most well-known war criminals, Winston Churchill.” He claims affiliation with Free the Filton 24 NL, an affiliate pro-Palestine group of Free the Filton 24, which formed after activists were remanded in prison for allegedly breaking into the Filton, Bristol site of defence company Elbit Systems.
The Dutch phrase “groetjes uit den haag,” translating to “Greetings from the Hague,” was also spray-painted on the statue. Outis claimed: “He [Churchill] was the Keir Starmer of his time. Covering his statue in red paint is as close as one can get to doing the same to the politicians currently harming the people of the UK.”
The activist claimed the Netherlands has been “complicit in the Palestinian genocide for decades,” calling the country “the largest investor in Israeli colonialism in the world.”
Downing Street condemned the incident as “completely abhorrent.” A No10 spokesman stated: “It’s obviously a disgrace. It’s completely abhorrent. Churchill was a great Briton. This Government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account. We’re glad the police have made an arrest.”
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge responded: “Absolutely disgraceful – Churchill is the greatest champion of freedom in our history. A truly great man who stood up to, and defeated, the most evil war criminal of them all.”
The Metropolitan Police’s two-minute response time prevented the suspect from leaving the scene before officers arrived. The suspect remains in custody as investigations continue into the racially aggravated criminal damage charges.
