In defence of Judge Tan Ikram

Judge Tanweer Ikram is not your usual judge. Ikram, who has a CBE to his name for services to diversity, has tirelessly insisted that minorities need to see people looking like them in senior positions (he has Pakistani Muslim heritage). Whether you see him as an innovative radical or a dreary progressive, Ikram is now mired in less savoury controversy.

Last month, he notoriously gave a 12-month conditional discharge to three women guilty of publicly displaying paraglider images supporting Hamas, a banned terrorist group. It was quickly pointed out afterwards that he had previously ‘liked’ a post on LinkedIn accusing Israel of terrorism in Gaza (something he says he did mistakenly). Understandably it was suggested that having done this he ought to have recused himself from the trial for apparent bias.

Comparisons were also made to a case last year when Ikram sentenced six retired policemen to suspended prison sentences for sharing racist messages on a private Whatsapp group; and to his jailing, in 2022, of a policeman who did the same (something he later recalled with pride to a US audience, adding that he had thereby ‘horrified’ the police).