Tasnime Akunjee
| Tasnime Akunjee Companies House Facebook LinkedIn Twitter (Lawyer, political activist) | |
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| Born | December 1977 |
UK criminal defence solicitor who suggested Palestine Action should change its name to "Yvette Cooper" | |
Mohammed Tasnime Akunjee is a British human rights lawyer working as a consultant criminal defence solicitor at Waterfords Group.[1]
Background
Akunjee was born and raised in London after his family moved from Bangladesh to the United Kingdom in the 1970s. He entered the legal profession when he was 22 years old, lives in North London and takes an active part in several activist causes, most notably immigration rights, displacement, citizenship deprivation and Palestinian statehood.
Legal cases
Akunjee specialises in "Terrorism"-related offending who represented the Begum family in the controversial case of their daughter Shamima Begum, a Bethnal Green schoolgirl who travelled to Syria to support the Islamic State group.
Akunjee represented the victim of the 2018 Almondbury Community School bullying incident and led a defamation case against Tommy Robinson, leader of the English Defence League, who was ordered to pay £100,000 in damages after wrongly accusing Jamal Hijazi, a Syrian refugee aged 16, of “violently attacking young English girls”.
Prospective Parliamentary Candidate
In January 2024, Akunjee announced that he would be standing as an independent candidate in the new Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency.[2] He cited current Labour MP Rushanara Ali's refusal to support a ceasefire in Gaza, during a vote in Parliament last year, as one of the reasons he was running.
In the event, Akunjee decided not to stand and Rushanara Ali retained the seat at the UK/General election/2024 with a much reduced majority.
Palestine Action
On 22 June 2025, Mohammed Akunjee was interviewed on The Crispin Flintoff Show and provided a detailed legal analysis of the UK government’s proposed proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000.[3] He explained the discretionary powers held by Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, the implications of the broad legal definition of terrorism and the serious consequences for activists and supporters.[4]
Akunjee subsequently suggested that Palestine Action should change its name to "Yvette Cooper", so that the Home Secretary would be proscribing herself as a terrorist organisation.[5]
References
- ↑ Waterfords Solicitors – Tasnime Akunjee (Consultant)"
- ↑ "I hope we can count on your support. #VoteAkunjee"
- ↑ "Palestine Action Crackdown Explained"
- ↑ Document:Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund
- ↑ "See George Galloway's interview with Craig Murray on 29 June 2025"