Overview
- Scottish prosecutors filed a 16‑page indictment on Aug. 28 charging seven people with malicious damage at Turnberry and saying they will seek harsher sentences under a terrorism‑aggravation rule; the defendants are due to appear in Glasgow on Aug. 31.
- The indictment says the March 8, 2025 protest involved dug‑up turf, sprayed weedkiller on greens, damaged sprinklers and painted political slogans including 'Gaza is not 4 sale' across the course and buildings.
- Prosecutors link the acts to Palestine Action, a group proscribed in Britain in July 2025 that the U.S. also designated recently, a move that the Crown says justifies tougher sentencing under existing law.
- Civil‑liberties groups and Palestine Action leaders say treating direct‑action vandalism as having a 'terrorist connection' criminalises protest and risks chilling lawful dissent.
- Lawyers and rights groups are pursuing legal challenges to the proscription and its use in prosecutions and the case could set a wider precedent because UK courts have already applied terror‑aggravated sentencing in a June 2026 Elbit factory conviction.