By Michael Holden and Alistair Smout
LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) – Four British pro-Palestinian activists were sentenced to a total of more than 20 years over a 2024 raid on a factory operated by Israeli defence firm Elbit which caused more than £1 million of damage, with the judge giving longer terms after determining there was a “terrorism connection.”
Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, were members of the banned group Palestine Action, which organised the assault on the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, southwest England, two years ago.
They were convicted of criminal damage at Woolwich Crown Court in May while Corner, who prosecutors said hit a police officer with a sledgehammer, was found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm. They had previously been acquitted of aggravated burglary.
Prosecutors said the incident should be treated as having a terrorism connection and the four should be sentenced accordingly with harsher punishments, drawing condemnation from human rights groups and high-profile supporters.
Judge Jeremy Johnson said it was an “aggravating factor that the offending had a terrorist connection,” but added that their previous good character was a substantial mitigating factor.
He sentenced Corner to seven years and eight months in total for the two convictions, after finding he used “extreme and gratuitous” force and that his autism didn’t explain why he swung the sledgehammer.
Kamio and Head were sentenced to five years while Rajwani was sentenced to four years and eight months for the criminal damage. They will all spend another year on licence after release.
LAWYERS FOR ACTIVISTS SAY TERROR LINK IS BASELESS
The raid took place around 10 months into Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in response to a deadly attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023.
Palestine Action was later proscribed under terrorism law, a decision which was ruled unlawful by London’s High Court though the group remains banned pending a government appeal, with a ruling due on Monday.
Judge Johnson said that while at the time of the offence Palestine Action was not a proscribed terrorist organisation, the offences had a terrorist connection because it involved serious damage to property and was intended to influence British government policy towards Israel, and said it was an aggravating factor when sentencing.
In impact statements given to the court, Elbit said the company had received almost £1.2 million from insurers to cover the damage, while the incident had had a lasting impact on staff safety and wellbeing.
Specialist military drone equipment, IT systems and computers were among the items damaged in the incident.
The activists said they were simply motivated to destroy weapons to stop what they described as Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza and disavowed violence against people.
Lawyers for the jailed activists said there was no basis for treating their convictions as terrorism, saying they had not been charged with any terrorist offence.
About 100 public figures, including author Sally Rooney, activist Greta Thunberg and actor Steve Coogan, have signed an open letter saying that if the four received harsher sentences because the offence was treated as terrorism, it would be a miscarriage of justice.
“Criminal damage has never been treated as terrorism within the UK justice system before and it is dangerous to treat them as the same thing,” said Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive.
“It is completely disproportionate to punish protesters for criminal damage as if they were terrorists, a sentence that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.”
Outside court, police said they had arrested over 100 people for showing support for Palestine Action.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Additional reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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