The activists had been cleared of committing aggravated housebreaking.
A jail van was pushed into the fence on the agency’s base (Picture: X)
Palestine Motion activists will face a retrial on felony injury and violence expenses over a break-in on the UK base of an Israel-based defence agency, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has introduced.
Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Nook, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, are all accused over the raid on the Elbit Programs website close to Bristol on August 6 2024.
At a trial which concluded on February 4, all six defendants have been cleared of aggravated housebreaking, after a jury deliberated for greater than 36-and-a-half hours.
Rajwani, Rogers, and Devlin have been additionally acquitted of violent dysfunction.
However the jury couldn’t determine on felony injury expenses towards the six defendants, in addition to allegations of violent dysfunction towards Head, Nook, and Kamio.
Jurors additionally failed to achieve a verdict on a cost of inflicting grievous bodily hurt towards Nook.
At Woolwich Crown Court docket on Wednesday, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC mentioned a retrial can be pursued on all the fees which had not led to verdicts.
She advised Mr Justice Johnson: “As we indicated on the finish of the trial, we now verify the prosecution intention to hunt a retrial in respect of all these allegations which no verdict was returned by the jury.
“That’s felony injury towards all defendants, the three defendants on the allegation of violent dysfunction, and with Mr Nook on the allegation of inflicting grievous bodily hurt with intent.”
Ms Heer additionally advised the court docket that aggravated housebreaking expenses towards 18 additional defendants who’re accused of involvement within the Elbit raid are additionally now being dropped.
“The prosecution has reconsidered the sufficiency of the proof,” she mentioned, “and for all of the defendants the prosecution presents no proof on the depend of aggravated housebreaking.”
The 18 additional defendants proceed to face different allegations over the raid.
After the trial had ended, all of the defendants aside from Nook have been let out on conditional bail, having spent round 18 months in custody.
The felony proceedings relate to a 3.30am raid on the Elbit website the place Head, a charity employee, is alleged to have pushed a jail van into the perimeter fence after which used the automobile to get into the manufacturing facility.
Nook is accused of inflicting severe harm to Police Sergeant Kate Evans with a sledgehammer.
The six defendants denied all the fees introduced towards them.
Wednesday’s court docket listening to is going down amid tight safety, with at the least two dozen cops positioned across the court docket constructing and a heavy presence of court docket safety guards.
The day’s largest headlines in UK and World information Subscribe Invalid e-mail
We use your sign-up to offer content material in methods you’ve got consented to and to enhance our understanding of you. This may occasionally embody adverts from us and third events primarily based on our understanding. You may unsubscribe at any time. Learn our Privateness Coverage
Members of the general public looking for to observe the court docket proceedings have been initially held exterior the court docket gates by safety.
MORE UPDATES TO FOLLOW…
Leave a Reply