CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A South African politician accused by the Trump administration of being at the forefront of an anti-white movement was found guilty of hate speech Wednesday for race-fueled comments he made in 2022.
Julius Malema, who is the leader of a small opposition party, was found guilty by an equality court over comments he made at a political rally.
“No white man is going to beat me up and (I) call myself a revolutionary the following day,” Malema said at the rally. “You must never be scared to kill. A revolution demands that at some point there must be killing because the killing is part of a revolutionary act.”
Malema has previously been found guilty of hate speech in a separate case for repeating an apartheid-era chant at rallies that contains the words “shoot the boer." The word boer refers to South Africa's minority white Afrikaner farmers. The decision to find him guilty of hate speech in that case was later overturned.
Malema, who leads the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party, featured prominently in a video U.S. President Donald Trump played in the Oval Office during a meeting with South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa in May. The video was used to confront Ramaphosa with false claims that the South African government was allowing the widespread killing of white farmers to seize their land.
That allegation is at the center of the Trump administration's move to cut all financial assistance to South Africa over what it calls the Black-led government's anti-white and anti-American policies. The South African government says the U.S. criticism is based on misinformation.
Malema, who is a lawmaker but not in government, has often been condemned in his own country for his political speech. He was twice denied a visa to travel to the U.K. this year because of his public statements, which include support for the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Equality courts in South Africa deal specifically with allegations of discrimination, hate speech and harassment based on race, gender or sexual orientation. They can order those found guilty to issue a public apology, pay compensation or recommend them for criminal prosecution. No order has yet been made over Malema's punishment in the latest case.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
FILE - A video plays during a meeting between President Donald Trump and South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - Economic Freedom Fighters party leader Julius Malema raises his fist at an election rally in Polokwane, South Africa, on May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)
A federal appeals panel on Thursday reversed a lower court decision that released former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from an immigration jail, bringing the government one step closer to detaining and ultimately deporting the Palestinian activist.
The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t decide the key issue in Khalil’s case: whether the Trump administration’s effort to throw Khalil out of the U.S. over his campus activism and criticism of Israel is unconstitutional.
But in its 2-1 decision, the panel ruled a federal judge in New Jersey didn’t have jurisdiction to decide the matter at this time. Federal law requires the case to fully move through the immigration courts first, before Khalil can challenge the decision, they wrote.
“That scheme ensures that petitioners get just one bite at the apple — not zero or two,” the panel wrote. “But it also means that some petitioners, like Khalil, will have to wait to seek relief for allegedly unlawful government conduct.”
Thursday’s decision marked a major win for the Trump administration’s sweeping campaign to detain and deport noncitizens who joined protests against Israel.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokesperson, called the ruling “a vindication of the rule of law.”
In a statement, she said the department will “work to enforce his lawful removal order” and encouraged Khalil to “self-deport now before he is arrested, deported, and never given a chance to return.”
It was not clear whether the government would seek to detain Khalil, a legal permanent resident, again while his legal challenges continue.
In a statement distributed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Khalil called the appeals ruling “deeply disappointing."
“The door may have been opened for potential re-detainment down the line, but it has not closed our commitment to Palestine and to justice and accountability," he said. "I will continue to fight, through every legal avenue and with every ounce of determination, until my rights, and the rights of others like me, are fully protected.”
Baher Azmy, one of Khalil's lawyers, said the ruling was “contrary to rulings of other federal courts."
“Our legal options are by no means concluded, and we will fight with every available avenue,” he said.
The ACLU said the Trump administration cannot lawfully re-detain Khalil until the order takes formal effect, which won't happen while he can still immediately appeal.
Khalil’s lawyers can request that the panel's decision be set aside and the matter reconsidered by a larger group of judges on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, or they can go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
An outspoken leader of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia, Khalil was arrested last March. He then spent three months detained in a Louisiana immigration jail, missing the birth of his first child.
Federal officials have accused Khalil of leading activities “aligned to Hamas,” though they have not presented evidence to support the claim and have not accused him of criminal conduct. They also accused Khalil, 31, of failing to disclose information on his green card application.
The government justified the arrest under a seldom-used statute that allows for the expulsion of noncitizens whose beliefs are deemed to pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests.
In June, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that justification would likely be declared unconstitutional and ordered Khalil released.
President Donald Trump's administration appealed that ruling, arguing the deportation decision should fall to an immigration judge, rather than a federal court.
Khalil has dismissed the allegations as “baseless and ridiculous,” framing his arrest and detention as a “direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.”
New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said on social media Thursday that Khalil should remain free.
“Last year’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil was more than just a chilling act of political repression, it was an attack on all of our constitutional rights,” Mamdani wrote on X. “Now, as the crackdown on pro-Palestinian free speech continues, Mahmoud is being threatened with rearrest. Mahmoud is free — and must remain free.”
Judge Arianna Freeman dissented Thursday, writing that her colleagues were holding Khalil to the wrong legal standard. Khalil, she wrote, is raising “now-or-never claims” that can be handled at the district court level, even though his immigration case isn't complete.
Both judges who ruled against Khalil, Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, were Republican appointees. President George W. Bush appointed Hardiman to the 3rd Circuit, while Trump appointed Bibas. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, appointed Freeman.
The two-judge majority rejected Freeman's worry that their decision would leave Khalil with no remedy for unconstitutional immigration detention, even if he later can appeal.
“But our legal system routinely forces petitioners — even those with meritorious claims — to wait to raise their arguments," the judges wrote.
The decision comes as an appeals board in the immigration court system weighs a previous order that found Khalil could be deported to Algeria, where he maintains citizenship through a distant relative, or Syria, where he was born in a refugee camp to a Palestinian family.
His attorneys have said he faces mortal danger if forced to return to either country.
Associated Press writers Larry Neumeister and Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this story.
FILE - Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil holds a news conference outside Federal Court on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025 in Philadelphia (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
