'I'm ready to take on anything': Marieha Hussain on her coconut placard prosecution nightmare and acquittal triumph

After almost a year of stress and anxiety, Marieha Hussain was found not guilty over a charge of racism.

The 'crime'?

Holding up a placard depicting the then Prime Minister and former home secretary as coconuts at a pro-Palestine march.

The courtroom cheered as the judge read out her verdict, and an emotional Marieha was greeted by her emotional family.

"It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I do hope," Marieha Hussain tells The New Arab.

"It was important for me to actually get to trial, give evidence, see through everything the prosecution has to throw at us and then be acquitted," she adds. 

"This really was the only way for me to clear my name."

On November 11, Marieha, along with thousands of pro-Palestine protesters in London, rallied for a march that was deemed controversial because it coincided with Armistice Day — despite it being a march for peace and solidarity.

Like many protesters, Marieha and her family made a series of posters to wave at the march.

One placard had an image showing the then-home secretary as "Cruella Braverman" on one side, and the other had Suella Braverman and ex-UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as coconuts.

"We had lots of chats about it [the placard] with various strangers, lots of people taking pictures of it, lots of people asked me to take their picture with my placard," Marieha says.

"It was just adding to the real community vibe that we had going on that day."

The march went well. The weather was great, the vibes were great, people were chanting, there was music, and Marieha's placard was a hit.

However, things took a turn when Marieha's placard became viral online for the opposite reasons.

A pro-Israeli X account called Harry's Place posted a picture of Marieha holding up the placard, accusing her of racism and tagging the Metropolitan Police to get involved, which they did.

"I started getting messages from people who were seeing the viral tweet and the police's response to it underneath," she tells The New Arab. 

Filled with dread, Marieha went online and saw the MET's tweet and personal photos of her circulating.

"Every time I refreshed, I could see that pictures of my children, my wedding, pictures of my family members, of me at various outings, and they were all appearing online," she explains. 

"I went into complete panic mode actually. Panic is the right word."

Marieha felt sick. There was a burning in her stomach, and she couldn't eat a bite of food or even drink water.

"I've never been that terrified actually, in my life ever."

She insisted that the placard was to call out the top government officials for their hateful rhetoric, especially Suella Braverman's racism.

"Although she [Braverman] was brown on the outside, on the inside, she holds very, very racist values on par with white supremacy values that only really targeted ethnic minorities and the vulnerable in our society," Marieha tells The New Arab.

"Rishi Sunak was on there because he's got the top job, in the most top office in our country and he wasn't reprimanding her, he wasn't pulling her back, he wasn't stopping her.

"That's really what it was, but in a satirical, funny way, totally harmless, really, and that's what was behind that placard."

Three days after the viral tweet, following advice from her solicitors, Marieha attended a voluntary interview at the police station. She made no comment and prepared a written statement.

The following months were filled with "so much", according to Marieha.

Along with several police visits, one at 2:30 in the morning and media bombardment, Marieha and her family decided to move homes because they felt shunned by their neighbours.

On top of that, while it was amicable, Marieha also had to leave her job as a teacher, which she loved — all because of the placard, the press, and the police.

"I was devastated, I was heartbroken," Marieha says.

"We did part ways, and all of that was because of the Metropolitan Police's actions. If I never return to teaching, it will be heartbreaking for me because I love teaching, and I love my subject."

The former teacher had just returned from maternity leave with her second child in September and was released from her workplace in December.

But Marieha had to move on because she learned she was pregnant with her third baby – a pregnancy she didn't even catch the signs of because of all the stress.

"Things were happening fast, so I didn't have time to sit and get in a corner and get really down and depressed and sad and upset about it," Marieha says.

"I really did have to move on very quickly."

The MET police have six months to decide whether they would charge someone. The day before the deadline was due, Marieha was charged with a racially aggravated public order offence.

A charge that she did not even know about until a journalist informed her and her solicitor confirmed.

"That postal requisition that they sent, I have never received it, we've never received it as we've drawn the conclusion that they actually never sent it," Marieha says.

Now, Marieha had to gear up for trial while going through what she describes as a difficult pregnancy.

"It's the first time that I had to get on anti-sickness medication," Marieha explains.

"This is the only pregnancy that I suffered anaemia in and SPD (Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction). None of these things happened in my other pregnancies. I think that the high levels of stress were making me sicker, it was making me unable to really deal with this properly."

By the time the trial came around, Marieha was a month away from giving birth and was already feeling anxious and exhausted.

On the first day of the trial, there was hope that the case would be dismissed. But ultimately, the judge decided there was a case to answer, that 'coconut' was capable of being a racial slur, and Marieha would have to take the stand.

"There was no evidence, there was no expert witness, there was no victim of the crime, there was no witness to anything," Marieha explains.

"There just seemed to be nothing in the prosecution's hands, nothing. We really did think that we had a strong case for dismissal… and when it wasn't, I was pretty devastated," she says.

Marieha admits she was terrified going up on the stand. But after cross-examination, a series of expert witnesses, and a long wait, in the end, Marieha was found not guilty.

"It was such a beautiful moment, such a beautiful ending to a nightmare."

One thing Marieha wanted to note is that her prosecution happened at lightning speed. She noted that the police are "dilly-dallying" with investigations into Frank Hester and Danny Baker.

It has been over a week since Marieha was acquitted, and while you would think she can now relax, she says she wants to use this time and the exposure to explain what was behind the prosecution in the first place.

"It's very, very obvious that hate speech laws are being used to specifically target ethnic minorities."

Marieha continues, "This was clearly a politically motivated prosecution. You've got the CPS, who used hate speech laws, but really what they wanted was to end a crackdown on political dissent, and they wanted to crack down on pro-Palestinian activism."

While Marieha does not know what's next for her, she does know that she's having a baby in just under three weeks.

"I've got three children, two of them will be pretty much under two, so I don't plan on returning to work, actually, for the near future," Marieha says.

"I can't tell at this moment what direction my life is going to go in," she adds. 

"All doors are open, and I'm ready to take on whatever is thrown at me now."

Anam Alam is a staff journalist at The New Arab. She frequently writes about human rights and social issues, including women's rights and sex education

Follow her on X: @itsanamalam