Jury convicts four from Palestine Action over UK break-in

LONDON: A jury on Tuesday convicted four Palestine Action activists of criminal damage in 2024 at the UK premises of Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems, the first convictions in the protracted, high-profile case. The verdict against the activists follows a retrial, after a different jury in February cleared the four and another pair of aggravated burglary but failed to reach verdicts regarding criminal damage and several other charges against some of the six. The group were accused of breaking into the Elbit site in Bristol, western England, in August 2024 and causing more than $1.35 million of damage. Elbit Systems is a defence technology company with around 20,000 staff and revenues of $2 billion, according to the firm’s website. After deliberating for more than 14 hours, jurors at the new trial found Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Rajwani guilty of destroying Elbit’s equipment with sledgehammers and crowbars during the raid. By a majority of 11 to one, they also found Corner guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm, but cleared the 23-year-old of the more serious charge of grievous bodily harm with intent. The jury found Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin — two other activists, already cleared in February of aggravated burglary — not guilty. The latest trial at Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London heard the activists were in a decommissioned prison van that Head, 30, crashed into shutters at the Elbit site in the early hours of August 6, 2024. Wearing red boilersuits, the four convicted then began damaging equipment before clashing with security guards and police. They claimed their purpose was to “dismantle drones and weaponry” they believed would be used to kill people. Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2026