By Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) -Six British pro-Palestinian activists went on trial on Tuesday accused of attacking a factory operated by Israeli defence firm Elbit to cause as much damage as possible, with one also charged with striking a police officer with a sledgehammer.
Prosecutors said the six defendants were part of a group from the now banned organisation Palestine Action, which carried out the meticulously planned assault on the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, southwest England, in August last year.
Some of the group used fireworks and smoke grenades to keep security guards at bay, while others caused “extensive damage” inside the factory by smashing equipment with crowbars and hammers and spraying red paint, prosecutor Deanna Heer said.
PROSECUTOR SAID GROUP THREATENED VIOLENCE
She said they intended to “cause serious damage to property and to use or threaten unlawful violence against anyone who stood in their way, if necessary with the use of weapons”.
Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, deny charges of aggravated burglary, violent disorder and criminal damage.
Corner also denies causing grievous bodily harm with intent for allegedly hitting a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer in the back as she was trying to arrest Rogers. Heer said the attack caused a lumbar spine fracture.
Heer told jurors at London’s Woolwich Crown Court that “a step-by-step plan of action” had been devised, involving two teams: a “black team” and a “red team”, wearing jumpsuits.
The black team’s job was to threaten the security guards to allow the red team, of which the defendants were members, to break in and “cause as much damage as possible”, she said.
Heer said a white former prison van was driven through a fence into the yard outside the factory, with members of the red team getting out and “destroying as much property as they could”.
Members of the group had used GoPro cameras to film the incident, Heer added, and footage posted online featured two members laughing and saying: “You’ve been Pal-Action-ed.”
JURORS TOLD VIEWS ON GROUP, GAZA IRRELEVANT
Britain proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation in July, almost a year after the Elbit incident took place, making it a crime to be a member.
The judge, Jeremy Johnson, told the jury there was controversy about that decision, and whether it was lawful, but said that was irrelevant to the case.
He said many people also had strong views about the war in Gaza, but told jurors they must “judge the case on the evidence, not on the basis of what you or anyone else thinks about Palestine Action or the war in Gaza”.
Earlier on Tuesday, Elbit reported sharply higher third-quarter profit, fuelled by sales to Israel’s military and by higher global defence spending.
(Reporting by Michael Holden and Sam Tobin; Editing by Paul Sandle and Alison Williams)
