\n<\/p>\n
Palestine Action activists who were the first defendants convicted of property damage whose offending was deemed to have a \u201cterrorist connection\u201d have launched an appeal of \u201cfundamental constitutional importance\u201d against the judge\u2019s finding.<\/p>\n
Charlotte Head, 30, Leona Kamio, 31, Fatema Rajwani, 22, and Samuel Corner, 24, received lengthy sentences in June for smashing up drones and other equipment at Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems\u2019 factory in Filton, Bristol, in 2024.<\/p>\n
Mr Justice Johnson\u2019s decision to sentence them as terrorists after a jury found them guilty of non-terrorism offences \u2013 they were committed before Palestine Action was banned \u2013 has been criticised by civil liberties groups, including Liberty and Amnesty International.<\/p>\n
Simon Natas, of ITN solicitors, who is representing the four prisoners, said serious property damage, which can constitute terrorism, was not clearly defined and could catch a wide range of offending, making the appeal of \u201cfundamental constitutional importance\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Convicted Palestine Activists (from left): Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner and Leona Camio<\/span> Composite: PA<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe only way you can determine what \u2018serious\u2019 means is by going back to what was said during the Terrorism Act [passing through parliament]. Jack Straw was the home secretary at the time. And when he presented the act to parliament he said that terrorism was, or involved, the use of serious violence.<\/p>\n \u201cSo \u2026 it had to be designed to create a climate of extreme fear and undermine the foundations of government. So, really, what we say is the government set the bar for what terrorism is very, very high.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Fatema Rajwani, the fourth convicted activist.<\/span><\/p>\n He said the bar had not been reached in this case and that there had been no intention to influence the government or to intimidate the public, or a section of the public, as required for a terrorism finding, \u201cbecause the intention here was simply to damage weapons to prevent them being sent to Israel \u2026 and used by the Israeli military\u201d.<\/p>\n While Corner was also convicted of grievous bodily harm without intent for striking Sgt Kate Evans with a sledgehammer, no terrorist connection was applied to this offence.<\/p>\n A press conference on Thursday was told that Johnson\u2019s ruling on a terrorist connection meant that the four received heftier sentences. They will also serve at least two-thirds of their tariff in prison, much longer than the norm, and must rescind their political views to obtain parole.<\/p>\n Additionally, they will also be subject to 15 years of terrorist notification requirements on release, which includes informing police of any new devices, relationships, bank accounts or addresses.<\/p>\n <\/span>Activists pictured inside the Elbit Systems UK factory in Filton, Bristol. <\/span> Photograph: X<\/p>\n Kamio\u2019s mother, Emma, said that 40 quadcopter \u201ckiller drones\u201d had been destroyed during the offending, and that the activists had been trying to save Palestinian children\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n She warned that \u201cthe floodgates\u201d would open, with more terrorist connection findings in similar cases if the appeal were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n In a statement from prison, Head said: \u201cOur case has been politically manipulated to justify the proscription of Palestine Action.\u201d<\/p>\n A statement supporting the appeal by the leading human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield KC said the integrity and fairness of jury trial had been undermined. \u201cIn effect, the judge can recategorise and upgrade an offence post-conviction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A single judge will decide whether to grant the prisoners leave to appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Palestine Action activists who were the first defendants convicted of property damage whose offending was deemed to have a \u201cterrorist connection\u201d have launched an appeal of \u201cfundamental constitutional importance\u201d against the judge\u2019s finding. Charlotte Head, 30, Leona Kamio, 31, Fatema Rajwani, 22, and Samuel Corner, 24, received lengthy sentences in June for smashing up drones<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[919,2598,713,3164,1240,8366,2250,24495],"class_list":{"0":"post-52091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-action","9":"tag-activists","10":"tag-appeal","11":"tag-launch","12":"tag-palestine","13":"tag-propalestine","14":"tag-sentenced","15":"tag-terrorists"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}