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
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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 jury was also unable to reach verdicts for charges of criminal damage against all six defendants, and was also unable to reach a verdict on a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent against Corner, for allegedly hitting a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer.<\/p>\n
While the defendants have been acquitted on the aggravated burglary charge, they could face a retrial on the counts on which verdicts could not be reached.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Deanna Heer said that following the decisions, her team wanted time to consider whether to seek a retrial on those counts.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors had told a jury at the start of the trial that \u200dthe six were part of a larger group that used a former prison van to smash into the factory early one morning, with some using fireworks and smoke grenades to \u200dkeep away security guards.<\/p>\n
Others had caused \u201cextensive damage\u201d in the plant by smashing equipment with crowbars and hammers and spraying paint, Heer had said.<\/p>\n
Cheers amid acquittal<\/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 trial 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
UK government snubs Elbit for contract<\/p>\n
The ban on Palestine Action has been challenged in court. The group describes 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
Palestine Action\u2019s activities have primarily targeted Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence firm with 16 sites in the UK, seeking to shut down the company\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n
The company\u00a0describes its drones, which have been used extensively in Gaza to deadly effect, as \u201cthe backbone\u201d of Israel\u2019s fleet.<\/p>\n
Prisoners for Palestine, a group that supports the families of prisoners allegedly linked to the now-banned Palestine Action, claims the campaigning efforts of activists to pressure the government \u2013 including some who were engaging in lengthy hunger strikes<\/a> until last month \u2013 have resulted in some wins<\/a>.<\/p>\n Chief among them, they claim, is the British government\u2019s recent decision, as reported by The Times newspaper, against awarding Elbit Systems UK a 2-billion-pound ($2.68bn) army training contract.<\/p>\n The contract is instead reportedly going to Raytheon UK, the subsidiary of the US defence firm \u2013 which also has several deals with the Israeli military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six British \u200dpro-Palestinian activists \u200dhave been acquitted of aggravated burglary relating to a 2024 raid on \u2060a factory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-407718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}