On July 10, 2024, the Champaign County State’s Attorney brought criminal charges against Yafa K. Issa, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) student, related to her participation in a pro-Palestine protest.
On April 26, Issa participated in a protest on the UIUC campus. After students erected tents – a violation of campus policy – and refused to leave, officers from the University of Illinois Police Department, Illinois State Police, Champaign Police Department, Urbana Police Department and the Champaign County Sheriff’s office arrived on campus to disperse the group. Video footage from the day shows demonstrators locked in arms and using objects including plywood, umbrellas, and a drywall board to shield themselves and hold their position against the police.
Following the protest, police investigators used social media to identify Issa as one of the protesters. Videos posted to Instagram showed Issa using a sheet of plywood as a shield against law enforcement and pushing back against them.
The Campaign County State’s Attorney’s office charged Issa with “mob action,” a class four felony, under which she faces between one and three years in prison. According to the Illinois General Assembly’s statute database, mob action is “the knowing or reckless use of force or violence disturbing the public peace by 2 or more persons acting together and without authority of law; “the knowing assembly of 2 or more persons with the intent to commit or facilitate the commission of a felony or misdemeanor;” or “the knowing assembly of 2 or more persons, without authority of law, for the purpose of doing violence to the person or property of anyone supposed to have been guilty of a violation of the law, or for the purpose of exercising correctional powers or regulative powers over any person by violence.”
In the case of the UIUC protest, public reporting indicates that few, if any, protesters were engaged in violent conduct. While it appears that some students, including Issa, were holding plywood, all reporting indicates that they were not using it in an offensive manner but rather as shields.
In December 2024, it was reported that Issa’s lawyer had filed to have the charges against Issa dismissed.
Scholars at Risk is concerned about the criminal prosecution of students in apparent retaliation for nonviolent expressive activity – conduct that is expressly protected by international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States is a party. State authorities have an obligation to refrain from actions intended to restrict or retaliate against such conduct. In addition to the harm to the immediate victim, wrongful arrests and prosecutions in connection with nonviolent expression undermine academic freedom and democratic society generally.
Sources:
https://www.wcia.com/news/local-news/pro-palestine-demonstrator-charged-with-mob-action-after-u-of-i-protest/
https://dailyillini.com/news-stories/champaign-urbana/crime/2024/07/13/university-student-charged-with-mob-action-after-involvement-in-pro-palestine-demonstrations/
https://www.news-gazette.com/newsletter/content/daily_headlines/police-use-ui-students-social-media-to-bring-charge-related-to-campus-protests/article_cd919e78-3e46-11ef-a706-ef43ba412161.html
https://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/courts-police-fire/two-more-charged-in-pro-palestinian-protests-on-ui-campus-based-on-videos/article_eed90084-4630-11ef-9b30-577d47e50674.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/seventh-protestor-charged-mob-action-175326272.html
https://ipmnewsroom.org/pro-palestinian-protester-charged-with-mob-action-seeks-to-dismiss-charges/
https://www.wcia.com/news/breaking-news/pro-palestinian-protestors-rally-again-at-uiuc/
https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=072000050K25-1