Palestine Action activists jailed over factory raid

Here is the latest breaking news from around the world: Palestine Action activists jailed over factory raid13 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on GoogleChloe Harcombe ,West of EnglandandDominic Casciani ,Home and Legal CorrespondentPalestine ActionFour people were convicted for the violent clash which fractured a police officer's spine and caused £1. 2m worth of damageFour Palestine Action activists have been jailed after causing £1. 2m of damage at a UK site of an Israel-based defence firm.

Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, were convicted of criminal damage in a retrial after they broke into the Elbit Systems factory near Bristol in August 2024. They were sentenced as terrorists in what is believed to be a legal first in the UK. Mr Justice Johnson said their actions had aimed to influence the government.

The Details

Corner was jailed for seven years and eight months for criminal damage and inflicting grievous bodily harm on a police sergeant. The judge said he had no justification for the "extreme and gratuitous force" used. Head, who drove the prison van into the compound, was sentenced to five years in prison, Kamio was also handed a five-year jail term, and Rajwani received a prison sentence of four years and eight months.

Corner was also convicted of causing grievous bodily harm after he fractured Sgt Kate Evans' spine with a sledgehammer in the raid. Due to the terrorist ruling, the offenders will not qualify for early release from prison provisions and the Parole Board will assess their risk to the public when it determines when they can be set free. Head and Rajwani cried in the dock as Johnson passed his ruling.

More from BristolMotorists face major delays after police incidentDad accused of shaking four-week-old baby to deathYoung people urged to get meningitis B vaccineRajiv Menon KC, defending barrister for Head and leading for all the defendants, previously told the court the prosecution's application for the case to have a terrorist connection "undermines the integrity of the criminal justice system and amounts to chilling and creeping authoritarianism". "It would be wholly wrong and unfair for this court to reach any conclusions as to the reasons or underlying motivations of the defendants in doing what they did given the prosecution applied for that evidence to be excluded," he said. Menon pointed out that Head had been cleared of aggravated burglary during a first trial of the case, while prosecutors then dropped a charge of violent disorder before a second trial went ahead only on the criminal damage charge.

The barrister said it would be unprecedented for a defendant to be sentenced on the basis of a terrorist connection when found guilty of a non-violent offence. Menon added that it would be "laughable" if any Palestine Action activist actually believed direct action would achieve the group's stated aim to "shut Elbit down".

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.