DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY, <\/p>\n
Six British \u200dactivists acquitted of aggravated burglary relating to a 2024 raid on \u2060an \u200bIsraeli defence firm Elbit.<\/p>\n
Six British \u200dpro-Palestinian activists \u200dhave been acquitted of aggravated burglary relating to a 2024 raid on \u2060a factory operated by \u200bIsraeli defence firm Elbit, with \u200da jury unable to reach verdicts on charges of criminal damage.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors \u200dat \u2060London\u2019s Woolwich Crown Court said on Wednesday the six defendants, whose trial began in November, were members of the now-banned group Palestine \u200bAction, which organised \u200cthe assault on the Elbit Systems United Kingdom facility in Bristol, southwest England, in \u200cAugust last year.<\/p>\n
The six \u2013 Charlotte Head, \u200c29, Samuel Corner, \u206023, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and \u200cJordan Devlin, 31 \u2013 all denied charges of aggravated burglary, violent disorder \u200dand criminal damage.<\/p>\n
Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin \u200cwere found not guilty of violent disorder by a jury at the Woolwich Crown Court, while it could not reach verdicts on \u200cthe same charge against Head, Corner and Kamio after more than 36-and-a-half \u200chours of deliberation.<\/p>\n
The six defendants hugged in the dock and waved to supporters in the \u200dpublic gallery, who cheered loudly after the judge had left the court.<\/p>\n
A press statement from a group of activists supporting the six under trials noted that the jury, which deliberated over the case for eight days, did not convict a single defendant of any offence, including violent disorder and criminal damage, despite several defendants admitting they used sledgehammers to destroy drones inside the facility.<\/p>\n
The prosecution said the group entered the site last August with the \u201cintent to use violence\u201d; however, the \u201cjury agreed with the defence argument that the defendants\u2019 sole intention was to use the items, including sledgehammers, as tools to disarm Israeli weapons to \u201cprevent violence\u201d, the statement added.<\/p>\n
The detainees, who are just some of a total of 24 activists linked to the group who have been arrested at different times, have been in custody for more than a year without trial, breaking the UK\u2019s six-month pre-trial detention limit.<\/p>\n
Their prosecution, which has drawn international scrutiny, has become a test case for how the British government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer is dealing with pro-Palestine demonstrations, with many UK residents and rights groups accusing authorities of heavy-handedness.<\/p>\n
The ban on the Palestine Action has been challenged in court. The group\u00a0describes itself as \u201ca pro-Palestinian organisation which disrupts the arms industry in the United Kingdom with direct action\u201d.<\/p>\n
The group has accused the UK government of complicity in Israeli war crimes in Gaza and says it is \u201ccommitted to ending global participation in Israel\u2019s genocidal and apartheid regime\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY, Six British \u200dactivists acquitted of aggravated burglary relating to a 2024 raid on \u2060an \u200bIsraeli…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-273606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}