6 acquitted of all charges

Six members of the Filton 24 have been acquitted by a jury in a major victory for anti-genocide protesters. After an 8-day deliberation Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Ellie (Leona) Kamio, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, Zoe Rogers, and Jordan Devlin were cleared of all charges brought against them by the Starmer regime. The ‘Filton 24’ are a group of political prisoners held for action to inhibit the manufacture of Israeli weapons used against Palestinians.

The verdicts include the most serious charge, that of aggravated burglary. The jury refused to convict all the defendants of that charge, as well as charges of criminal damage. The ‘conscience’ verdict came despite five of the defendants admitting in court that they had destroyed Israeli weapons and equipment belonging to Israel’s biggest weapons firm, Elbit Systems.

Filton 24 vindicated

The trial exposed the Starmer government’s collusion with Israel and the UK state’s lies about the accused’s actions, when video evidence contradicted the claims of police and security guards.

Corner was also acquitted of a charge of ‘grievous bodily harm with intent’. Corner had been accused of striking a police officer.

The political prisoners’ supporters described the result as a “monumental victory” that has “vindicated” the defendants, who had been smeared by government ministers and state-corporate media as “violent criminals”.

Aggravated burglary carries a potential sentence of life in prison. The not guilty verdicts mean that the jury did not accept the prosecution case that the defendants entered the Elbit weapons factory with the intention of using the items they carried as weapons, or threatened/used unlawful violence against Elbit security guards.

‘Prevent violence’

Instead, the jury agreed with the defence argument that the defendants sole intention was to use the items, including sledgehammers, as tools to disarm Israeli weapons to “prevent violence”.

Campaigners say the refusal to convict the defendants even of criminal damage, despite evidence demonstrating damage of Israeli weapons, shows that the jury:

understood that it is not those who destroy Israeli weapons which are guilty, rather the guilty party in the one that it is deploys such weapons to commit genocide in Gaza.

Featured image via the Canary