Aysu Bicer
12 June 2026•Update: 12 June 2026
Four Palestine Action activists have been jailed over a protest at a factory of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest military manufacturer.
Samuel Corner, 23, was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison for grievous bodily harm and criminal damage. He will be eligible for parole after seven years and eight months.
Charlotte Head, 30, and Leona Kamio, 30, were each sentenced to six years less 45 days for criminal damage and will be eligible for parole after four years and 320 days. Head was also banned from driving for one year after driving a prison van used as a “battering ram” to force entry into the Elbit Systems UK facility.
Fatema Rajwani, 21, received a sentence of five years and eight months less 45 days for criminal damage. The judge said he considered the fact that she was 20 at the time of the incident.
The court heard that the group caused about £1 million in damage at the Bristol site in the early hours of Aug. 6, 2024, during a protest over the company’s links to conflict in the Middle East.
All four defendants were convicted of criminal damage last month following a retrial. The judge ruled that the offenses met the legal definition of having a “terrorist connection,” a central issue in the case.
“I am sure that one of the purposes of your offending was to influence the United Kingdom government,” Justice Johnson said, referring to Parliament’s legal test for terrorism.
The court heard that the group sought to end Britain’s “complicity” in serious crimes by Israel in Gaza.
The judge said intimidation of company staff also amounted to intimidation of the public and that the offenses were committed “for the purpose of advancing a political or ideological cause.”
The finding of a “terrorist connection” required the court to impose more severe sentences.
Turning point in use of counterterrorism legislation
Outside Woolwich Crown Court on Friday, Clare Hinchcliffe, mother of former activist Zoe Rogers, said she believed her daughter and others involved in the so-called Filton 4 case were being punished as part of a broader crackdown on direct action targeting Israeli arms companies.
Hinchcliffe argued that the case marked a turning point in the use of counterterrorism legislation against protesters.
She said the defendants had been prevented from fully explaining their motives and that important political context had been withheld from the jury.
“This has been an absolutely historical case, and we are right now reaching a climax,” she told Anadolu, adding that the court process restricted what could be presented in defense of the activists’ actions.
“They weren’t allowed to say genocide, ethnic cleansing, the history of Palestine and Israel. They weren’t allowed to say what the weapons did,” she said.
Elbit Systems operates several offices and production facilities in Britain and elsewhere, producing communications systems, surveillance technologies and unmanned aerial and ground vehicles.
Hinchcliffe also criticized the judge and said she believed the legal process had been unfair.
“He has been appalling throughout this trial. He has; he’s a reason my daughter is in prison for 18 months because he kept refusing bail applications. 18 months is three times the legal limit to be in prison before a trial…” she said.