Six Palestine Action activists who broke into an Israeli-owned weapons manufacturer’s UK premises carrying sledgehammers have been cleared by a jury of aggravated burglary.
Samuel Corner, Charlotte Head, Elie Kamio, Fatema Zinab Rajwani, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin faced trial at Woolwich Crown Court in London over allegations they intended to use the sledgehammers as weapons after driving a prison van into Elbit Systems’ Bristol factory.
All six were acquitted of aggravated burglary and jurors also found Ms Rajwani, Ms Rogers and Mr Devlin not guilty of violent disorder.
The jury deliberated for more than 36 hours but could not reach verdicts for charges of criminal damage against all six defendants.
No verdict was reached in the allegation that Mr Corner, 23, inflicted grievous bodily harm on Police Sergeant Kate Evans, or on the charges of violent disorder against Ms Head, Mr Corner and Ms Kamio.
The six activists hugged each other in the dock as a dozen of their supporters cheered from the public gallery above.
Footage played to jurors showed the six wearing red jumpsuits during the incident in the early hours of August 6, 2024.
Prosecutors said the six tried to “cause as much damage as possible and obtain information about the company”.
In body-worn footage from one of the security guards, shown to jurors, three of the defendants approached him with one holding a lighted flare and two others brandishing sledgehammers.
All of the defendants except Mr Devlin gave evidence, telling jurors they had entered the factory without permission and damaged Elbit’s equipment including computers and drones.
They told jurors the sledgehammers were solely for destroying property and were not “in any circumstances intended to injure security staff”.
At about 3.30am on August 6, Ms Head, a charity worker, drove a prison van into the site’s perimeter fence and then used the vehicle “as a battering ram” to get into the factory, the trial heard.
In what Ms Head called “the craziest 20 minutes of my life”, the six carried out their action before being arrested by police.
Prosecutors alleged that as security guards tried to stop the activists, the guards were sworn at and told to leave, had sledgehammers swung at them and were whipped, while one was sprayed with a foam fire extinguisher.
Rajiv Menon KC, defending, said they had not expected security guards to enter the factory during their action, adding that the defendants were “completely out of their depth”.
The trial heard the defendants “genuinely believed” their demonstration at the factory would help the Palestinian cause in Gaza.
While the jury was in retirement, the court heard posters had been put up on bus stops and lampposts near the building which said “The jury decide not the judge”, “Jury equity is when a jury acquits someone on moral grounds” and “Jurors can give a not-guilty verdict even when they believe a defendant has broken the law”.
The judge said: “I’m aware that notices are being displayed in various places in the local area, I think on the route from Plumstead to court and perhaps in other places, which might appear to be intended to influence you, the jury.
“They obviously weren’t put up by any of the defendants and it’s obviously not something that should be held against any of the defendants.”
Clare Rogers, mother of Zoe Rogers, said the six activists were “people of conscience” who felt the UK government would not pressure Israel to end the military campaign in Gaza.
“They went on marches, wrote to MPs, joined encampments. My daughter reached a point where she could see no one was listening. She realised direct action was the only thing that was effective, and that’s when she joined Palestine Action,” she said outside court on Wednesday.
“They took action because if they hadn’t they couldn’t have lived with themselves.”
Palestine Action was proscribed as a terror organisation in July last year but the designation was not considered relevant to the case as it took place after the incident in Bristol.
