UK: Sally Rooney and 100 others warn against 'cruel' terror sentences for Palestine activists

UK: Sally Rooney and 100 others warn against 'cruel' terror sentences for Palestine activists Submitted by MEE staff on Tue, 06/09/2026 - 15:22 Four activists who broke into Israel's Elbit Systems factory in Bristol could be sentenced with terror offences, despite not being charged under terrorism laws Sally Rooney speaks onstage during the Hulu Panel in Pasadena, California, on 17 January 2020 (Erik Voake/AFP) Off Sally Rooney, Greta Thunberg, Brian Cox and Steve Coogan are among around 100 figures jointly warning against four activists being sentenced to terrorism offences for actions they took against an Israeli arms manufacturer based in the UK.  The celebrities published an open letter calling on Judge Jeremy Johnson to drop the use of a “terrorism connection” in the sentencing of the activists set to take place on Friday.  Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Zainab Rajwani are part of a group of activists known as the Filton 25.  In August 2024, they broke into the premises of a UK arm of Israel’s Elbit Systems in Bristol, where they were charged with offences including criminal damage.  Two other activists, Jordan Devlin and Zoe Rogers, were cleared of charges. Middle East Eye reported last month that the court will seek to add a “terrorism connection” to their charges at sentencing - a fact that was kept secret from the jury. Sentencing with a terrorism connection could mean the defendants face aggravated sentences. Most of them have already served 18 months on remand. In a preparatory ruling in March 2025, presiding judge Justice Johnson ruled that there appeared to be a “terrorist connection” in the case because the activists were attempting to influence the Israeli government by restricting their access to weapons.  “The four defendants were not charged with terrorism offences. They were not tried under terrorism laws. The jury was never informed of any proposed ‘terrorism connection’ during the trial and did not find any of the defendants guilty of any terror-related crimes,” the open letter signed by the public figures stated.  “The proposed ‘terrorism connection’ is founded simply on a guilty verdict in relation to criminal damage. To bypass the jury and sentence a group of protesters as terrorists would constitute an extremely grave miscarriage of justice, with consequences far beyond this case alone.” 'Unjust and cruel' Other signatories include actors Zoe Wanamaker, Miriam Margolyes, and Zawe Ashton, as well as musicians Charlotte Church and Kate Nash. Film directors Yorgos Lanthimos, Terry Gilliam and Ken Loach also signed the letter.  Palestine Action: Judge refuses recusing self from sentence hearing amid bias claims Read More » The letter stated that the defendants had tried every means at their disposal to call for an end to the UK supplying arms to Israel, before they entered the factory and “dismantled weapons themselves”.  “Never before has a link to terrorism been imposed at the sentencing stage in a criminal damage case. The implications for civil liberties in Britain are difficult to overstate,” it said.  “The Filton activists acted to uphold international law and defend human life. To sentence them on the basis of a ‘terrorism connection’ would not only be unjust and cruel: it would gravely undermine the right to protest and the impartiality of the judicial system itself.” Rajwani, Head, Kamio and Corner await sentencing on 12 June.  The defendants were all being retried for the offences after the jury in the initial trial cleared them of charges of aggravated burglary. In the previous trial, Rajwani, Devlin and Rogers were also found not guilty of violent disorder charges, while the jury did not return a verdict on the same charge for the other three defendants.  Rooney said: “Protest that poses no threat to the public simply is not terrorism. These activists may have knowingly risked their freedom in taking action, but they now face the prospect of punishment for crimes they were never convicted of and did not commit.  “This is an obvious effort to undermine solidarity with Palestine, but what it really undermines is UK law.” Palestine Action News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0