Actors including Steve Coogan, Miriam Margolyes, and Zoë Wanamaker have signed a letter urging a senior judge not to sentence Palestine Action activists as “terrorists” over a raid on an Israeli defence firm.
Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, and Fatema Rajwani are facing lengthy jail terms on Friday after they caused an estimated £1 million in damage to the Elbit Systems factory in Bristol in the early hours of August 6, 2024.
All four defendants were in an old prison van which smashed through the plant’s entry gates and took sledgehammers and crowbars to the Israeli-headquartered company’s equipment and property.
On Friday, Mr Justice Johnson is set to pass sentence on the activists at Woolwich Crown Court, and he will consider whether the crime had a “terrorist connection” that should lead to tougher jail terms.
In a letter published on Tuesday, a collection of actors, directors, activists, writers, comedians, artists and academics have urged the judge to reject the idea that the Elbit raid was related to terrorism.
Signatories include Harry Potter stars Paapa Essiedu, Zoë Wanamaker, and Miriam Margolyes, actors Zawe Ashton, Maxine Peake, Steve Coogan, Tobias Menzies, and Bella Ramsey, TV presenter Nadia Sawalha, singers Charlotte Church, Kate Nash, and Shirley Manson, comedians Ardal O’Hanlon and Alexei Sayle, directors Yorgos Lanthimos, Ken Loach, and Terry Gilliam, and best-selling author Sally Rooney.
Activist Greta Thunberg has also added her name to the list of more than 90 supporters to the message.
The letter urges the judge to “drop the use of the ‘terrorism connection’”, suggesting that, if he refuses when passing sentence, it “would gravely undermine the right to protest and the impartiality of the judicial system itself”.
They added: “We demand that you reconsider before it is too late.”
Commenting on the letter, Rooney suggested including the terror link as part of the sentencing would be seen as an “obvious effort to undermine solidarity with Palestine, but what it really undermines is UK law”.
Church added: “The government failed in its duty to prevent genocide in Palestine.
“Now the courts are lashing out at young people who acted to try and stop it, when it’s those making weapons for Israel that should be facing jail.”
At a hearing last November, the judge ruled that criminal charges stemming from the Elbit raid had a “terrorist connection”, at a time when Palestine Action had been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the government.
That ban was adjudged to be unlawful by the High Court, while Court of Appeal judges are due to rule next week on whether they agree that proscription should be overturned.
Head, Corner, Kamio, and Rajwani were all convicted after two trials of criminal damage, but were acquitted of the more serious charges of violent disorder and aggravated burglary.
Their supporters say that, if the judge takes into account his “terrorist connection” ruling when passing sentence, it would be unfair as the jury was not informed of the ruling before returning its verdict.
It would also, they say, lead to tougher jail sentences and the possibility of life-long effects of being branded a terrorist.
“To bypass the jury and sentence a group of protesters as terrorists would constitute an extremely grave miscarriage of justice, with consequences far beyond this case alone”, the letter sets out.
They say the Palestine Action activists were trying to block the UK supply of arms to Israel to defend against a “campaign of mass killing in Gaza”, and argue that peaceful protest had not worked.
The raid on the Elbit factory was to dismantle weapons in order to save lives, the letter claims, and it is said the “conscientious motives” of the defendants may be used against them at the sentencing hearing because they were “attempting to influence the Israeli government by restricting their access to weapons”.
“In this case, the purported ‘terrorism connection’ could extend the defendants’ prison sentences, require them to ‘rescind’ their deepest moral beliefs in order to be eligible for parole, and impose harsh restrictions on their freedoms even after their release.
“Never before has a link to terrorism been imposed at the sentencing stage in a criminal damage case. The implications for civil liberties in Britain are difficult to overstate.”
The open letter addressed to the judge is the latest part of a campaign against the activists being sentenced on Friday for an offence with a “terrorist connection”.
On Monday, lawyers for the defendants tried and failed to have Johnson removed from the case, claiming he had shown bias to one of the defendants.
Supporters of Palestine Action have staged regular protests in defiance of the government’s ban, leading to hundreds of arrests under terrorist legislation.
Johnson is also the subject of a complaint to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, accusing him of “bias” in his handling of the trials.
The judge said on Monday at a hearing at the Old Bailey that he will consider the “terrorist connection” in the first part of Friday’s sentencing hearing.
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