Jury frees Palestine activists who smashed Israeli arms factory
Six Palestine Action protesters have been found not guilty of aggravated burglary at an Elbit weapons site near Bristol.
Zoe Rogers, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Jordan Devlin were also not convicted of any other charges by a jury at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday. The group were on trial for a break-in at an Israeli-owned arms factory on 6 August 2024 at the height of the genocide in Gaza. Keir Starmer’s Labour government only placed partial restrictions on arms exports to Israel the following month.
The activists spent 18 months on remand before their trial began in November 2025. Jurors did not convict them of any charges despite the judge trying to limit defences available to the activists. A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said: “These verdicts are a huge blow to government ministers who have tried to portray Palestine Action as a violent group to justify banning it under badly drafted terrorism legislation. “Despite government efforts to prejudice this trial, citing the allegations of violence to justify treating Palestine Action as ‘terrorists’, as if they were already proved, the jury which heard the evidence has refused to find the defendants guilty of anything, not even criminal damage. “It shows how out of step this government is with public opinion, which is revulsed by the Government and Elbit’s complicity in genocide.”
Good to see normal humans in the UK still value life over profiting from genocide.
Footage seen by Palestine Action jury shows Israeli quadcopters being smashed
Trump caught off guard by Iran's sudden condition to hold talks on its terms
Iran on Wednesday surprised the US administration headed by Donald Trump by announcing that it was not willing to discuss its ballistic missile programme during the scheduled talks on Friday. Tehran also said it would like to hold these talks in Oman rather than in Turkey. Iran's sudden aggressive posturing has left the US perplexed, as was evident from Secretary of State Marco Rubio's reactions.
In the UK, Keir Starmer is facing the biggest test of his political career after it emerged that the man he appointed as the UK ambassador to the US had shared government information with Jeffrey Epstein. Rifat Jawaid analyses these developments and also the jury's decision to acquit members of the Palestine Action Group.
