Palestine Action activists used whips and hammers to threaten guards at arms factory, court hears

Palestine Action activists brandished whips, hammers and kebab skewers to intimidate security guards and keep them at bay during a break-in at an Israel-linked arms factory, a court has heard.Five defendants are accused by prosecutors of being part of a “black team”, wearing black jumpsuits, whose role was to overwhelm security guards, so that a “red team”, wearing red jumpsuits, could break into the Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol, and smash up equipment including drones.Qesser Zuhrah, 21, Zahra Farooque, 26, Kamran Ahmed, 29, Heba Muraisi, 31, and Liam Mullany, 34, went on trial at Woolwich crown court on Friday charged with criminal damage and violent disorder over the raid during the early hours of 6 August 2024. They deny the charges.The prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told the jury that an alleged plan of the raid, discovered by police, said: “Shut Elbit Down. This is our primary objective as Palestine Action. We can do that by sticking together and ensuring its destruction with our brains and muscle.”Jurors were told that a security guard, Nigel Shaw, who had struck a member of the black team across the back of his legs with an umbrella, suffered a 4cm laceration to his head after being attacked.Heer said: “The role of the black team was to overwhelm the security guards so that the red team could break into the factory. They did so by threatening, intimidating and, if necessary, assaulting the guards, by throwing fireworks at them and brandishing weapons, such as whips and hammers and large kebab skewers.“When one of the black team was detained by a security guard, other members of the group attacked him, hitting him until he released their colleague, leaving the security guard with a laceration to his head.”She told the court the break-in was carefully planned and a prison van, driven by a member of the red team, crashed through the first perimeter fence surrounding Elbit’s factory at about 3.30am.The black team followed on foot shouting slogans including “Free Palestine” as the van was driven through a second perimeter fence at the site of the firm, whose parent company is based in Israel.Heer said: “The footage shows that the black team used or threatened violence against the security guards that night. It is clear, the prosecution submit, that Nigel Shaw was physically attacked and [was] caused injury but violence was also used or threatened by the black team before then when they threw fireworks or smoke grenades or cracked whips and brandished skewers in order to intimidate the security guards and keep them away.”She said the idea was for the red team to destroy “as much property as possible” before the police arrived and they used fire extinguishers filled with red paint to spray the walls and floor, crowbars and sledgehammers to smash apart computer equipment and drones and also damaged a disabled toilet.The court was told that the plan for the break-in described the black team, who had their faces covered, as “coverts” because the intention was “to get away without being caught”, unlike the red team who were labelled “overts”.The trial continues.