A German court has ruled that authorities illegally prevented a British-Palestinian surgeon from participating in a pro-Palestinian event in Berlin, local media reported on Tuesday, Anadolu reports.

The Berlin Administrative Court ruled that immigration authorities had no legal grounds to prevent Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah from speaking at the event last April. Authorities had alleged that the doctor sympathized with Hamas and might commit a criminal offense during the event.

Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon who treated wounded Palestinians in Gaza for about a month during Israel’s military campaign, was denied entry to Germany when he arrived to speak at the congress. The event was ultimately shut down by police after just two hours.

According to a court spokesperson, the ruling found that the ban, based on a clause in Germany’s residency law, was unlawful as there was no reasonable expectation that Abu-Sittah’s statements would have endangered Germany’s democratic order or public safety.