A 28-year-old man has been charged with "contempt of public decency" on suspicion of urinating on a plaque installed in tribute to a police officer killed in a 2017 terrorist attack near the British parliament, the London police. Photographs of a man urinating near the monument on Saturday, as far-right activists protested in central London, throwing projectiles and attacking police, have been widely circulated on social media, provoking outraged reactions .
A 28-year-old man from Essex, north-east London, was arrested after presenting himself at a police station, Scotland Yard said. The man has been charged with "contempt of public decency" and will appear in Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Monday, police said Sunday evening.
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Policeman Keith Palmer, 48, was stabbed to death in March 2017 near parliament by Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old British man converted to Islam and known to the police, who had just mowed pedestrians with his car on Westminster Bridge. A total of five people died in the attack claimed by the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group.
Interior Minister Priti Patel deemed "absolutely appalling and shameful" the degradation of the plaque posed in tribute to the police, also condemning the clashes on Saturday between far right activists and the police. A total of 113 people were arrested, including for disturbing public order, attacking the police and possession of weapons, following Saturday's protests in central London, and 23 police officers were injured, said the police in a separate release on Sunday.
Commander Bas Javid deemed Saturday's events "absolutely shocking" . "Blind hooliganism like this is completely unacceptable and I am glad that arrests have been made. We will now work closely with the courts to obtain justice, ” he said, quoted in the statement.