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Bahar Mustafa: Charges dropped against student officer 'who tweeted #killallwhitemen'

The Goldsmiths welfare and diversity officer had been summoned to court to face malicious communication charges

Caroline Mortimer
Tuesday 03 November 2015 12:55 GMT
Bahar Mustafa was charged in October
Bahar Mustafa was charged in October (Twitter)

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Charges against a student diversity officer who reportedly tweeted '#killallwhitemen' have been dropped, police say.

Bahar Mustafa, of Goldsmiths University, had been charged with sending a threatening message and sending a grossly offensive message via social media.

But police told the Guardian on Tuesday that the case had been dropped.

The 28-year-old student officer from Edmonton in North London had attracted intense critcism in May after she asked white men not to attend an event at Goldsmiths' student union which was intended for ethnic minority women and non-binary attendees.

Her critics then dug through her old tweets and alleged she had used the hashtag #killallwhitemen.

Ms Mustafa had been due to appear at Bromley Magistrates Court on 5 November but in a letter dated 26 October the Crown Prosecution Service said "there is not enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction".

She will now be able to apply to have her costs paid for.

The charges were attacked by free speech groups, who launched a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #istandwithbaharmustafa when they were announced in October.

Ms Mustafa's lawyer Mike Schwarz, told the Guardian: "The decision first to prosecute and then to climb down so soon afterwards, made by the Crown Prosecution Service headquarters, calls into question their ability to make sensible judgments on delicate issues."

The diversity officer, who was elected by the student union and is not an employee or student at the university, remained in her position after a motion of no confidence failed to reach the 3 per cent of union members to trigger a new election.

Twitter users welcomed the news and questioned why the CPS brought the charges in the first place:

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