Palestine Action activists who caused £1m of criminal damage to an Israel-linked defence firm could be sentenced as terrorists, it can now be revealed.
Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Rajwani were all convicted over the 6 August 2024 raid on the Elbit Systems factory in Bristol.
The activists, who were armed with sledgehammers and crowbars, smashed into the site using an old prison van.
Corner fractured a police officer’s spine during the fracas.
The four defendants claimed that the action was necessary to protect Palestinians.
They were convicted of criminal damage at Woolwich Crown Court last week, while Corner was also found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm.
It can now be reported that Mr Justice Johnson, in a pre-trial ruling, found that the charges had a “terrorist connection”.
Palestine Action was banned as a terrorist organisation under a government proscription order in July 2025.
However, the controversial move was declared unlawful by the High Court in February this year.
Mr Justice Johnson may still be asked to consider a terror link to the raid on the Elbit factory when he passes sentence on 12 June, in spite of the government’s court defeat on proscription.
The Court of Appeal is currently considering an appeal by the government, but it is not yet known if it will have delivered its ruling when the judge passes sentence in June.
Supporters of the defendants have complained of a “stitch-up” that jurors considering the case during the trial were not told of the terror link, or that if convicted the activists could face aggravated sentences.
They say that if sentences are passed with a terrorist connection, the jail terms would be longer and have to be served in full, while the convicted defendants may also spend years after prison being closely monitored by counterterror police.
In pre-trial rulings that can now be reported, Mr Justice Johnson also banned the defendants from putting forward documents “which relates to the defendants’ reasons for believing that Elbit supplied Israel with weapons and that Israel’s military operations in Gaza were unlawful [sic]”.
The defendants were permitted to set out how the raid was part of a campaign of direct action by Palestine Action to cause damage to Elbit property, that they believed the firm was supplying weapons to Israel for use in the war in Gaza, and that they believe Israel’s actions in Gaza are unlawful.
The activists say they wanted to cause maximum damage to military equipment to prevent it being used against Palestinians.
But the judge also ruled that those aspects of the defence case should be carefully limited, and ruled: “It need not, and should not be, extensive. It is not in dispute.
“It would be disproportionate and a waste of the jury’s time for it to be developed at undue length.
“Moreover, there is a risk that if it is not carefully presented and controlled, such evidence might be misconstrued by the jury as an indicator that it is relevant for the jury to consider the legality of Israel’s military operations in Gaza.”
During the raid on Elbit, activists wore red boilersuits and filmed themselves entering the factory and smashing equipment.
There were clashes with police and security guards, who tried to intervene as damage was caused to computers and drones, while fire extinguishers were used to spray red paint across the walls and floor.
Head, Corner, Kamio and Rajwani were each found guilty of criminal damage, while two other activists, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin, were cleared of the same charge.
Corner was also found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm against Police Sergeant Kate Evans.
At the first trial of the case, all six defendants were cleared by a jury of aggravated burglary, and Rajwani, Ms Rogers and Mr Devlin were acquitted of violent disorder.
Prosecutors then abandoned the violent disorder charges against the other three defendants.
Barrister Rajiv Menon, who represented Head, was accused by the judge of committing contempt of court in his closing speech in the first trial, in which he was said to have flouted orders about the evidence that could be presented to the jury. He was also accused of misleading the jury about the prosecution case.
However, the Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday that the judge had made an error when referring the contempt case to the High Court, and ordered that he consider the matter again.
Hundreds of supporters of Palestine Action have been arrested and charged with a terrorism offence since the original proscription order was made.
Typically they have been accused after holding up placards offering support for the group and stating that they oppose genocide.
The arrests, at mass public demonstrations, were halted after the High Court ruling on the proscription order, but police have started detaining activists again while the Court of Appeal considers its ruling on the lawfulness of the government’s ban.
