Middlebrough, whose trial date is set for April 2026 and who had already spent a year in pre-trial detention, was facing a total of over 18 months on remand, far exceeding the six-month pre-trial custody time limit.

“I am not on the run. I am merely being sensible, refusing to be held as a prisoner of war of Israel in a British prison,” Middlebrough said in a statement obtained and verified by The Electronic Intifada. “Outrageously, 23 of my heroic and honorable co-defendants remain in prison following our kidnapping by counterterrorism police.”

The British government proscribed Palestine Action as a “terrorist group” on 5 July of this year, prompting a rare protest against the UK from the UN, which called the the banning order a “disturbing misuse of UK counterterrorism legislation.”

Of his arrest, Middlebrough said police used counterterrorist tactics despite him not being charged with terror offenses.

“We were raided, our families detained and guns pointed at our heads despite not being charged with any terror offenses,” Middlebrough said in the statement. “The UN has condemned our treatment as likely ‘enforced disappearance,’ while my co-defendants are indefinitely detained before facing trial.”