Two Palestine Action activists have been acquitted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage charges in a trial at Leicester Crown Court for an action against a Leicester drone factory complicit in Israel’s Genocide in Gaza. The trial commenced on 2 December, concluding yesterday.
Palestine Action: not guilty
The activists were arrested less than a month into the Genocide, on 18 October 2023, after a dynamic action which shut down the UAV Tactical Systems factory operated by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company The action took place less than 12 hours after at least 500 wounded, starving, and displaced Palestinians were massacred at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist Hospital in a targeted missile strike.
A van was driven through the barriers of the factory, positioned so the gates could not be closed. The activists then took to the roof of the vehicle, lighting flares, and unfurling banners and Palestinian flags. The factory entrance was covered in blood-red paint, while the activists shouted,/ the war criminals are in that factory. Elbit Systems is guilty of war crimes. And exclaiming “Sunak is the real criminal”.
During the action, the main gate was damaged and security hub, as well as a number of Elbit and security vehicles. While the factory was shut down, one of the Actionists said:
We need to be as determined as the Palestinian people, who never stop digging through the rubble to find survivors…Thousands of people are dying, what else are we supposed to do? We have to act now.
Her comrade said:
Israel has stolen 1,700 children’s lives in the last 7 days. If you condemn the Holocaust, where are you now? ‘Ethnic cleansing’ is too clean of a word for what Israel is doing.
Shutting down Israel’s weapons supply chain again
Owned jointly by Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer, and French arms company, Thales, the UAV Tactical Systems plant exports ‘ML10’-category arms, meaning military drones, to Israel – of the type used to decimate Gaza. In total £5 Million of yearly exports are sent from the plant to the Israeli military. Elbit supplies 85% of Israel’s drone fleet, and 85% of its land-based military equipment.
Both defendants gave powerful evidence in their defence, arguing that they acted to prevent Elbit’s crimes, and save lives in Palestine. The Jury, on Friday, acquitted the activists of Conspiracy to Cause Criminal Damage.
This resounding victory follows on from another Jury decision in Leicester, in May 2024, when two other Palestine Action activists were also found Not Guilty of Criminal Damage charges, following a four-day occupation of the roof of the same factory, UAV Tactical Systems, in May 2021.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:
The actionists who shut down Israel’s drone plant in Leicester did so because it is the morally necessary thing to do.
Their jury agreed – that is why the government is launching attacks on trial-by-jury, because the people cannot abide complicity in Israel’s crimes.
Featured image via Martin Pope
