Four Palestine Action activists who mounted a “terrorist” raid on an Israel-based defence firm’s UK factory, causing £1.2 million of damage and leaving a police officer with a fractured spine, have been jailed.
Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, were in an old prison van which crashed into the Elbit Systems site near Bristol in the early hours of August 6, 2024.
The activists, all wearing red boilersuits, used sledgehammers and crowbars to destroy computers, drones and other equipment before police and security intervened.
Corner, a former student at Oxford, struck police officer Kate Evans twice on the back with a seven-pound sledgehammer, leaving her with a fractured spine.
At Woolwich Crown Court on Friday, Mr Justice Johnson jailed Corner for seven years and eight months, telling him he had used “extreme and gratuitous force against a vulnerable police officer acting in the course of her duties”.
Head, who drove the prison van into the compound, was sentenced to five years in prison, while Kamio was also handed a five-year jail term, and Rajwani received a prison sentence of four years and eight months.
Each defendant will also spend an extra year on licence once their prison terms have ended.
The judge said they had “decided to take matters into your own hands” after coming to the view that the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza and being “disillusioned” with legal efforts to oppose it.
He said the activists had been “reckless” about who would be injured and had been heavily involved in organising the raid with the right of veto over each part of the plan.
The judge pointed out that two of the activists had livestreamed the raid and posted the footage to social media, as part of an effort to “glorify criminality and vigilantism”.
Supporters of the defendants cheered and banged on the front of the public gallery as the sentences were passed.
Earlier on Friday, the judge ruled that the raid amounted to an “act of terrorism”, having been carried out to try to influence the UK Government and intimidate a section of the public.
Rajwani and Head were seen breaking down crying after the judge made his ruling.
On Friday morning, PC Evans held back tears as she read out an impact statement, revealing that she had been forced to give up her rank of sergeant after struggling in the aftermath of the attack by Corner.
The officer was helping to detain nursery school teacher Kamio at the Elbit factory when she was struck with a sledgehammer, and she is still having medical treatment nearly two years later.
“The emotional impact of this incident has been profound and ongoing,” she said.
“I experience disturbed sleep, often waking in a panicked state or after distressing dreams.”
Evans also revealed that she had been the target of a hate-filled email from a troll during legal proceedings, including the suggestion that she is “working for the Zionist occupation of Britain”.
Turning to Corner, she said he has never apologised, and in the immediate aftermath of the sledgehammer attack there was “no sign of shock or regret from him – only attempts to justify his actions with baseless and offensive claims that I was complicit in genocide”.
Rajiv Menon KC, representing Head, mounted an argument that the judge should not take the unprecedented step of finding a “terrorist connection” for offences of criminal damage, saying it would be “chilling, creeping authoritarianism that undermines the very fabric of our society”.
He pointed to past cases which did not have a terrorist finding, including one involving a man caught with weapons who had vowed to start a “race war”.
“There needs to be consistency, and there needs to be an approach to sentencing taken by the judiciary which is understandable and explicable to the public,” he said.
However, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC submitted that the scale of the damage, combined with Palestine Action’s aim to “influence government decisions and policies” in the UK and Israel, meant the incident qualified for a terrorist connection.
The judge’s ruling means the four activists will serve at least two-thirds of their sentences for criminal damage behind bars, and will have to face Parole Board hearings to secure their release from prison.
They are also expected to be subjected to extra monitoring once out of jail, and will spend an extra year on licence after the end of their prison terms.
Around 500 protesters gathered outside the court on Friday for a demonstration in support of the defendants in the dock.
Amid a heavy police presence, at least 72 of those at the demonstration were arrested after being seen holding up signs in support of Palestine Action, according to a Met spokesperson.
The Elbit raid was one of the triggers for the UK Government to subsequently proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, in a decision the High Court has now ruled was unlawful.
Court of Appeal judges are to decide on Monday whether to uphold the High Court ruling.
At the trial, Ms Heer said the raid on the Elbit factory had been “meticulously organised” to cause “as much damage as possible and obtain information about the company”.
Elbit Systems was founded in 1966 and is an international military technology company supplying equipment and drones to the Israeli military.
The firm received a £1.2 million insurance payout after the Palestine Action raid, and Elbit security manager Simon Robinson said more serious harm had been done to staff left fearful of future attacks.
He said: “This was not damage to an empty or symbolic building. The defendants brought weapons into a functioning workplace, resulting in serious injury to a police officer.”
The Palestine Action activists say they carried out the raid to destroy equipment that would have been used against Palestinians in Gaza, and say their actions were necessary to oppose genocide.
Menon appeared to briefly lose his composure when outlining to the court Head’s “exemplary character”, including work helping refugees, asylum seekers, and women fleeing domestic violence in Calais, Brussels and London.
Turning on Elbit, he described it as a “killing machine” and highlighted a video from the company’s chief executive “stating his pride at the company’s involvement in the mass murder of Palestinians”.
“Elbit was wholly unaffected by this,” he said of the damage caused in the raid.
“They continue to play the same insidious role they play in the mass murder of Palestinians in the months and years that followed.”
Tom Wainwright, for Corner, urged the judge to remember the conscientious motivations of those involved in the incident.
“Had those drones not been damaged, they may have been involved in taking the lives of men, women, and children in Gaza,” he said.
“That is something that, in a sane world, would be commended.”
Wainwright also said Corner wants to apologise to Evans and says he was “horrified to find out he had caused (her) injury”.
The barrister said his ADHD and autism diagnoses mean it is difficult for him to expose his emotions, but added that he is “devastated and ashamed” at what he did.
Hamish McCallum, for Rajwani, told the court Goldsmith University is willing to welcome her back to complete her degree, and the time in prison has “allowed her a period of significant reflection”.
He said: “There’s no doubt she will never again involve herself in direct action of this nature, or organisations like Palestine Action, or put herself before this court or any court in the future.”
After the first trial of the case, a jury cleared the defendants of aggravated burglary and allegations of violent disorder were abandoned.
All four defendants will spend the next 15 years subject to terrorist notification requirements.
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