Jury refuses to convict seven Palestine Action defendants over Elbit raid
Jurors at a London court were discharged after being unable to reach verdicts for seven Palestine Action defendants accused of coordinating a raid on an Israeli-owned arms factory.
One person who could not be named for legal reasons was convicted by a majority of 9-1 of criminal damage in relation to the incident.
The defendants- Hannah Davidson, 53, Ian Sanders, 47, Aleksandra Herbich, 41, Teuta Hoxha, 30, William Plastow, 35, Julija Brigadirova, 33, Sean Middlebrough, 33, and Madeleine Norman, 31- were accused of criminal damage and violent disorder in connection with a break-in to an Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol in August 2024.
But on Wednesday, following an eight-week trial and around 37 hours of deliberations at the Old Bailey, jurors could not reach verdicts for seven of the defendants. They could face a retrial.
Plastow had previously been acquitted of violent disorder due to a lack of evidence.
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All eight defendants are accused of coordinating the break-in by carrying out reconnaissance and purchasing equipment, but were not alleged to have gone into the factory premises during the action.
Prosecutors said that they encouraged and assisted other groups of activists - known as the “red team” - who broke into the site itself and destroyed weapons and equipment - and the “black team”, whose role it was to distract the security guards outside the factory.
All eight defendants deny the charges.
Initially, the jury had been directed by the presiding Judge Patrick Field to deliver a unanimous verdict.
But on Tuesday, he told jurors he would consider majority verdicts on the different counts.
Outside the court, the defendants were greeted by chanting supporters. They wept as they were embraced by family and friends.
‘Invisible coordinator’
The eight were charged under the joint enterprise doctrine, meaning that, while they are not alleged to have committed the offences themselves, they faced the same allegations as the defendants who broke into the site.
The prosecution accused them of coordinating the raid, pointing to their involvement in a number of signal groups which they said were connected to organising the break-in.
Representing Brigadirova, lawyer Tom Copeland reminded jurors last week that they had not seen any evidence of financial transactions made by the defendant linked to the Filton raid, nor any messages sent from her Signal handles related to planning the action.
“If the prosecution is right, perhaps she should be called the invisible coordinator,” Copeland said.
'We didn’t know how an action could turn into a terrorism case. We were all terrorist prisoners'
- Teuta Hoxha, Palestine Action defendant
He told jurors that, in the weeks prior to the action when the coordination was alleged to have taken place, Brigadirova had attempted to take her own life.
Copeland noted that the prosecution had “glossed over” the information about Brigadirova's mental health at the time, by describing the defendant as suffering from “low mood”.
Representing Herbich, lawyer Emma Fenn told jurors in her closing speech that the evidence showed that her client's role in the raid was primarily limited to purchasing food and cooking.
Co-defendant Norman told jurors that, before the action, at an Airbnb "safe house" rented by the activists in Bristol, Herbich had been "cooking a lot of pasta. That’s all I saw her doing”.
Fenn emphasised that “cooking doesn’t even come close” to qualifying as an “intentional act” assisting or encouraging the offences of violent disorder and criminal damage.
“There is nothing to connect her with tools or weapons,” Fenn said, describing Herbich as “someone doing the cleaning at most and the cooking at least”.
Plastow, who was the only defendant not alleged to have travelled to Bristol at the time of the raid, told jurors that he had no knowledge of the Filton site prior to the action. He said that the first he had heard of it was via an X post on the morning after the raid.
Jurors heard that forensic analysis of Plastow’s phone and laptop found no evidence of access to an encrypted document allegedly used to plan the action at Filton, and no history of him accepting group calls via the Signal app.
They also heard that the analysis found no history of internet searches, communications, documents or notes referencing the Filton site before 6 August 2024.
Plastow admitted to purchasing items for Palestine Action and handing them over to co-defendant Charlotte Head. But he said that he thought the equipment was intended for use in a general store for future actions.
His lawyer, Alex Rose, urged jurors that they must be sure his client supplied the equipment to Head with the intention that "Elbit’s property would be destroyed or damaged in accordance with the plan in which Charlotte Head and others were engaged”.
Each of the defendants denied that they knew the raid would involve violence against security guards.
When giving evidence, Hoxha said: "Given that behind the scenes lobbying groups [were] lobbying the government, it wouldn’t be in [the] interests of Palestine Action to be violent."
'Terrorist prisoners'
During the trial, jurors heard that the defendants had been arrested by counter-terrorism police.
Hoxha said when giving evidence that they were all "terrified" upon arrest.
"We didn’t know how an action could turn into a terrorism case," she said. "We were all terrorist prisoners."
Plastow told jurors that he was arrested by “about 20” counter-terrorism police days after the raid and then held for six days “in a little white room with no windows and lights that didn’t go off”, like "Hannibal Lecter”.
Davidson wept while she was on the stand, saying that she and her co-defendants “still have PTSD” following their arrests.
All seven defendants were held in prison on remand for up to 18 months, in excess of standard UK custody time limits.
Hoxha was among several prisoners who launched hunger strikes over their detention conditions during their imprisonment.
The court heard that Plastow "missed the last year" of his mother's life, who died of terminal cancer while he was in prison. He was briefly granted bail to sit by her deathbed, before being remanded back to prison.
The six members of the "red team" previously faced a months-long trial which concluded in May, with four of them being convicted of criminal damage, one of committing grievous bodily harm without intent, and two acquitted of all charges.
Following an initial trial which ended in February, the six were acquitted of aggravated burglary charges, with the jury hung on criminal damage and grievous bodily harm charges.
Jurors also acquitted three of the defendants of violent disorder charges, and failed to return verdicts on the same charge for the remaining three.
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