Palestine Action Protesters Found Not Guilty

Pro-Palestinian campaigners claim ‘huge blow’ to U.K. government after landmark prosecution of the direct action group fails, report Phil Miller and Dania Akkad.

By Phil Miller and Dania Akkad
Declassified UK

Six Palestine Action protesters have been found not guilty of aggravated burglary at an Elbit weapons site near Bristol. Zoe Rogers, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Jordan Devlin were also not convicted of any other charges by a jury at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday.

The group were on trial for a break-in at an Israeli-owned arms factory on Aug. 6, 2024, at the height of the genocide in Gaza.

Keir Starmer’s Labour government only placed partial restrictions on arms exports to Israel the following month.

The activists spent 18 months on remand before their trial began in November 2025.

Jurors did not convict them of any charges despite the judge trying to limit defences available to the activists.

The jury could not reach verdicts on some charges, opening the door for the prosecution to seek a possible retrial and forcing the defence to apply for bail.

London’s Parliament Square on Sept. 6, 2025, during the mass arrest of protests, many of them elderly, against the proscription of the direct-action group Palestine Action. (Alisdaire Hickson, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said the not guilty verdicts for the aggravated burglary charges were

“a huge blow to government ministers who have tried to portray Palestine Action as a violent group to justify banning it under badly drafted terrorism legislation.

Despite government efforts to prejudice this trial, citing the allegations of violence to justify treating Palestine Action as ‘terrorists’, as if they were already proved, the jury which heard the evidence has refused to find the defendants guilty of anything, not even criminal damage. 

It shows how out of step this government is with public opinion, which is revulsed by the Government and Elbit’s complicity in genocide.”

Protesters outside an Elbit Systems of America facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire, Nov. 20, 2023. (Courtesy Maen Hammad)

[Five of the defendants (Head, Kamio, Rajwani, Rogers, and Devlin) were released on conditional bail pending any potential retrial or further proceedings. Samuel Corner was the only one denied bail and remained in custody (remanded), reportedly due to unresolved charges including an allegation related to causing grievous bodily harm. Their next hearing was scheduled to begin on Feb. 18].

Around 40 family and friends of the defendants were gathered outside Woolwich Crown Court, hugging and crying.

Moved to a patch of grass outside the court, several in the crowd shared a meal on paper plates and greeted an increasing number of supporters who arrived by public transport.

“I’m so happy,” one supporter shouted.

A truck carrying prisoners passed by with an audible banging sound from inside. The crowd welped and started to cheer. One drummed.

A supporter acknowledged the truck probably didn’t hold the defendants. “We’re just excited,” they said.