Overview
- Four activists — Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Zainab Rajwani — entered Elbit Systems' Filton factory in August 2024 and damaged equipment in a direct-action raid.
- In a preparatory ruling in March 2025 Mr Justice Johnson found there appeared to be a 'terrorist connection' because the action aimed to influence Israel by restricting access to weapons.
- The defendants were retried and convicted of criminal damage on 5 May, and Samuel Corner was separately convicted of causing grievous bodily harm after fracturing a police officer's spine with a sledgehammer.
- Around 100 public figures published an open letter on 9 June urging the judge not to apply the 'terrorist connection' at sentencing, which is listed for 12 June at Woolwich Crown Court.
- Legal experts and campaigners warn that applying the terrorism link at sentencing could lengthen terms, affect parole and protest rights, and intersect with an imminent Court of Appeal ruling on the prior proscription of Palestine Action.