The veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was arrested for carrying an anti-Hamas slogan during a pro-Palestine protest.

The 73-year-old said the incident was “yet another” example of the police “abusing their powers to suppress freedom of expression”.

Mr Tatchell, best known for his pioneering role in the gay rights movement, said he was detained at a march in London on May 17 while holding a sign that read: “Stop Hamas executions.”

He claimed that officers pulled him out of the march and told him the sign represented a “racially and religiously aggravated breach of the peace”.

The Australian-born activist has been supporting the Palestinian cause for the past five decades.

He said he attended the march as he wanted to support calls for a ceasefire while also calling out Hamas’s execution of protesters and critics in Gaza.

On the placard, Mr Tatchell highlighted the case of Odai Al-Rubai, a 22-year-old Gazan man who was beaten with metal bars before his body was dragged through the streets and dumped outside his family home.

Mr Tatchell told The Telegraph that before his arrest a “handful” of pro-Palestine protesters had confronted him over the sign in an “aggressive, threatening and intimidating” manner.

He said: “Some people told me to f--- off, others called me Zionist scum, all while the police stood by and did nothing.”

Mr Tatchell said he was later confronted by Metropolitan Police officers after Palestine Solidarity Campaign stewards complained that he was chanting: “Hamas are terrorists.”

Mr Tatchell told the officers he was not chanting or using that phrase and pointed out that his sign read: “Stop Israel Genocide! Stop Hamas Executions!”

He said he was then accused of being part of a counter-protest despite making it clear to the officers he was in solidarity with the pro-Palestine marchers.

Mr Tatchell said he was pulled out of the march and arrested on suspicion of a racially and religiously aggravated breach of the peace under the Public Order Act.

Police ‘abusing’ their powers

He was arrested and had his fingerprints, DNA sample and photograph taken, before being released after five and a half hours.