Palestine Action activists face criminal damage retrial over Elbit factory raid

Palestine Action activists will face a retrial on criminal damage and violence charges over a break-in at the UK base of an Israel-based defence firm, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced.

Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, are all accused over the raid on the Elbit Systems site near Bristol on August 6 2024.

At a trial which concluded on February 4, all six defendants were cleared of aggravated burglary, after a jury deliberated for more than 36-and-a-half hours.

Rajwani, Rogers, and Devlin were also acquitted of violent disorder.

But the jury could not decide on criminal damage charges against the six defendants, as well as allegations of violent disorder against Head, Corner, and Kamio.

Jurors also failed to reach a verdict on a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm against Corner.

At Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said a retrial would be pursued on all the charges which had not ended in verdicts.

She told Mr Justice Johnson: “As we indicated at the end of the trial, we now confirm the prosecution intention to seek a retrial in respect of all those allegations which no verdict was returned by the jury.

“That is criminal damage against all defendants, the three defendants on the allegation of violent disorder, and with Mr Corner on the allegation of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.”

Ms Heer also told the court that aggravated burglary charges against 18 further defendants who are accused of involvement in the Elbit raid are also now being dropped.

“The prosecution has reconsidered the sufficiency of the evidence,” she said, “and for all the defendants the prosecution offers no evidence on the count of aggravated burglary.”

The 18 further defendants – Kamran Ahmed, Sean Middlebrough, Qesser Zuhrah, Julia Brigadirova, Zahra Farooque, Aleksandra Herbich, Teuta Hoxha, Heba Muraisi, Madeline Norman, William Plastow, Ian Sanders, Hannah Davidson, Liam Mullany, Harland Archer, Finn Collins, Salaam Mahmood, Louis Adams, and Moiz Ibrahim – continue to face allegations of criminal damage and violent disorder over the raid.

The court heard the retrial of the first set of defendants is currently planned for February 16 next year.

After the trial had ended, all the defendants apart from Corner were released on conditional bail, having spent around 18 months in custody.

On Wednesday, the judge agreed to set another five defendants – Plastow, Sanders, Norman, Brigadirova and Herbich – free on bail after hearing applications from their lawyers.

More of the defendants are expected to apply for bail at a hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday.

The criminal proceedings relate to a 3.30am raid on the Elbit site where Head, a charity worker, is said to have driven a prison van into the perimeter fence and then used the vehicle to get into the factory.

Corner is accused of causing serious injury to Police Sergeant Kate Evans with a sledgehammer.

The six defendants denied all the charges brought against them.

Wednesday’s court hearing is taking place amid tight security, with at least two dozen police officers positioned around the court building and a heavy presence of court security guards.

At the gates of the court, around 50 supporters of the defendants waving Palestinian flags could be heard chanting “Free Palestine” and “we have won” after news emerged about some of the charges being dropped.

Reacting to the aggravated burglary charges being dropped, Naila Ahmed, head of campaigns at human rights organisation Cage International, said: “It’s an incredible feeling, and just one in the long list of victories that we hope will continue to come.”

She said protesters will also attend Friday’s hearing at the Old Bailey, to show their support as some of the defendants apply for bail.

“It’s such an important case that has become a test case for the entirety of how direct action is treated, how protest movements are treated, especially in relation to Palestine,” she added.

Lisa Minerva Luxx, from the Filton24 Defence Committee which supports the activists, said: “The retrial I don’t feel should be going ahead.

“I feel that they’ve proved at this point that they’ve already been punished for long enough and still had no convictions, and so at this point it isn’t in the public interest for them to keep pursuing a retrial, even on the charges in which they’re hung.”