Former Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP attended the protest outside Woolwich Crown Court on Friday in support of four convicted Palestine Action activists, including 21-year-old Fatema Rajwani.
He told the Press Association: “(Fatema) has served her time [remanded in custody awaiting trial] and now she’s being sentenced again.
“The worry I’ve got is because the government has proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation – I voted against that – she will now be possibly sentenced on terrorist charges.
“I think that’s unjust. By introducing this terrorist element retrospectively, it’s completely unjust. And I think, actually, if a jury had heard that, I think they’d be free now.
"So I’m actually astounded that this has happened. I’m very angry about it as well.
“That’s why they should be released today. There’s a debate to be had about whether it was a crime as well, because they believed that they were trying to prevent the further killing of Palestinian children.”
Rajwani, along with Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, was convicted of criminal damage last month in relation to a break-in at the Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol, in August 2024.
Simon Robinson, a security manager for the Israeli-based defence firm, told the court at the sentencing hearing that the estimated cost of the damage caused by the group, who took sledgehammers to equipment, was £1.2 million.
All four are due to be sentenced on Friday afternoon and could see their sentences effectively doubled if Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson rules that their offences, which took place prior to the proscription of Palestine Action, had a “terrorist connection”.
This would see them sentenced under the Terrorism Act, meaning they would not be eligible for parole until at least 2/3 through their prison term, instead of 40 per cent as is the case for non-terror offences of this kind.
Supporters of the activists have argued against such a ruling as Johnson had ruled prior to the trial that the jury should not be informed that such a sentencing outcome was a possibility in the case.
Defend Our Juries, which has organised protests against the proscription of Palestine Action, has submitted a complaint to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO), accusing Johnson of exhibiting “manifest bias and discrimination” against the defendants and calling for him to be thrown off the case.
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