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In what one campaigner called a “huge blow” to the UK government’s efforts to crush Palestine Action, a London jury on Wednesday cleared six members of the direct action group of aggravated burglary — even after they admitted to breaking into and vandalizing an Israel-linked weapons facility.

Zoe Rogers, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, and Jordan Devlin — six of the so-called “Filton 24” — were found not guilty of aggravated burglary and criminal damage by a jury at Woolwich Crown Court after eight days of deliberation. Devlin, Rajwani, and Rogers were found not guilty of violent disorder, although verdicts were not reached for the three others on the charge.

Prosecutors alleged that the six activists drove a van like a “battering ram” to smash their way into the Elbit Systems UK research, development, and manufacturing facility in Bristol early on August 6, 2024 in a “meticulously organized” attack targeting the subsidiary of the Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems.

❗️BREAKING — Palestine Action protesters found not guilty of burglary at Elbit weapons factory in Bristol.The six activists were also not convicted of other charges, having spent 18 months in jail awaiting trial.realmedia.press/filton-verdi…

The defendants — who had been imprisoned on remand for 17 months — were also accused of using fire extinguishers to spray red paint throughout the facility and of using crowbars and hammers to break computers and other equipment.

The activists admitted to breaking into the facility, only disputing that the sledgehammers were offensive weapons and arguing that they were only meant to damage property.

After the verdicts were announced, the courtroom erupted in cheers and the six cleared activists hugged in the dock.

“These verdicts are 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,” said a spokesperson for the group Defend Our Juries, which has organized........

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