Aggravated burglary charges against 18 Palestine Action activists dropped

Prosecutors have dropped aggravated burglary charges against 18 defendants accused of a Palestine Action break-in at an Israeli defence firm’s UK site after a jury cleared six other defendants of the offence.Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, were all acquitted of aggravated burglary, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, with respect to the 6 August 2024 raid on the Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol.At a case management hearing at Woolwich Crown Court, south London. for all 24 defendants charged in relation to the break-in, Deanna Heer KC said: “The prosecution has reconsidered the sufficiency of the evidence … In light of those verdicts and in respect of all the remaining defendants the prosecution offers no evidence on count one, aggravated burglary.”The remaining 18 defendants accused of involvement were all being held in prison awaiting trial, except for Sean Middlebrough, who absconded while on conditional release from Wandsworth prison, south-west London, in October last year.However, following the prosecutors’ decision not to pursue the aggravated burglary charges, five of them – William Plastow, Ian Sanders, Madeline Norman, Julia Brigadirova and Aleksandra Herbich – were granted conditional bail.Plastow, Ian Sanders, Madeline Norman have been in custody for about 18 months while Brigadirova and Herbich have been in jail since November 2024.Bail applications for another eight of the 18 are expected to be heard on Friday. All of the 18 continue to face criminal damage charges, and some are also charged with violent disorderHeer confirmed that the Crown Prosecution Service would be seeking a retrial of the six acquitted of aggravated burglary on the charges that the jury failed to reach verdicts on after more than 36 hours of deliberations.Heer told Mr Justice Johnson on Wednesday: “As we indicated at the end of the trial, we now confirm the prosecution intention to seek a retrial in respect of all those allegations which no verdict was returned by the jury.“That is criminal damage against all defendants, the three defendants on the allegation of violent disorder, and with Mr Corner on the allegation of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.”Jurors cleared Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin of violent disorder but failed to reach a verdict on the charge with respect to Head, Corner, and Kamio.None of the six were convicted of any offence and, at the conclusion of the trial, all of them apart from Corner were set free on conditional bail, after having spent about 18 months in custody.Aggravated burglary requires an offender to commit a burglary while with a weapon which they intend to use to cause injury or incapacitate a person. The first six defendants to be tried were carrying sledgehammers but their lawyers told the jury that they were intended to be used to destroy property at the Elbit site.Wednesday’s court hearing took place amid tight security, with at least two dozen police officers positioned around the court building and a heavy presence of court security guards.Members of the public seeking to watch the court proceedings were initially held outside the court gates by security.At the gates of the court, around 50 supporters of the defendants waving Palestinian flags could be heard chanting “Free Palestine” and “we have won” after news emerged about some of the charges being dropped.Reacting to the aggravated burglary charges being dropped, Naila Ahmed, head of campaigns at human rights organisation Cage International, said: “It’s an incredible feeling, and just one in the long list of victories that we hope will continue to come.”