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UK Palestine Action activists acquitted of burglary in Elbit factory raid

Demonstrators hold up a banner during a protest by Palestine Action group in London, June 23, 2025. (Photo: AP)

A London jury on Wednesday cleared six pro-Palestinian activists of aggravated burglary for a 2024 break-in at the UK premises of Israeli military firm Elbit Systems, though the panel failed to reach verdicts on related charges, including criminal damage and violent disorder.

Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, Fatema Rajwani, Zoe Rogers, and Jordan Devlin were found not guilty of aggravated burglary at Woolwich Crown Court.

The pro-Palestinian activists were accused of breaking into the Elbit site in Bristol, western England, in August 2024 and causing more than £1 million of damage. Palestine Action has since been banned as a "terrorist organization" by the government.

Rajwani, Rogers, and Devlin were found not guilty of violent disorder after over 36 hours of jury deliberations.

The jury was unable to reach verdicts on charges of criminal damage against the defendants, or on charges of violent disorder against Head, Corner, and Kamio.

The jury also did not reach a verdict on a charge of grievous bodily harm with intent against Corner, who was accused of injuring a police officer during the incident.

Prosecutors could ask for a second trial for the remaining charges.

Body footage from a security guard played in court appeared to show two of the defendants wielding sledgehammers and shouting at the guard.

Prosecutors alleged that the activists swung the sledgehammers at security guards trying to stop them.

The defendants insisted that they entered the factory to damage Elbit's equipment in protest against the genocide in Gaza, but that the sledgehammers were not "intended to injure security staff".

The defense argued during the trial, which began in November 2025, that the activists were "completely out of their depth" and did not expect security guards to enter the factory.

Defend Our Juries, a campaign group organizing protests calling for the ban on Palestine Action to be lifted, celebrated the verdicts.

"These verdicts put to bed the deceitful accusations from ministers that these brave activists are 'violent criminals'," said Defend Our Juries.

The UK government proscribed Palestine Action in July 2025, days after its activists snuck into an air force base in southern England.

Elbit Systems is a military technology company assisting the Israeli occupation forces in conducting the ongoing genocide in Gaza.


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