Supporters of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! were among the crowd gathered outside the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court on 19 August to hear the verdicts in the second trial of activists charged in connection with the August 2024 raid on the British factory of Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.
After an eight-week trial and following nearly 40 hours of deliberation, none of the defendants present at the court hearing were convicted of any criminal offence. This is a huge victory for the pro-Palestine movement and shows once again that the British government’s virulently pro-Zionist stance over the last three years of genocide has completely failed to persuade the public that solidarity with Palestine is a crime.
In total, 25 people have been charged in relation to the action at Elbit’s Filton factory, just outside Bristol. From their arrests in 2024-5 they were all remanded in custody, with repeated bail applications rejected, until 4 February 2026 when a jury at Woolwich Crown Court failed to convict the first six to go on trial, despite having been arrested inside the factory, where they livestreamed themselves destroying drones and technical equipment. At the subsequent retrial, two activists were acquitted on all charges, while three were found guilty by the jury on a single count of criminal damage, and the remaining defendant was convicted on that charge and one of grievous bodily harm without intent. In a vicious act of retribution for both their principled activism and their earlier victories, Judge Jeremy Johnson sentenced the four, using a niche power under the Sentencing Act 2020 which allows non-terrorism offences (in this case, criminal damage) to be labelled as having a ‘terrorism connection’, opening the door to draconian prison sentences and lengthy post-sentence periods of heavily monitored ‘supervision’ subject to complex conditions. This is all despite the fact that the Filton raid took place nearly a year prior to Palestine Action being proscribed under the Terrorism Act in July 2025.
While the first trial focused on what took place inside the factory, the aim of the Crown Prosecution Service at the second trial was to convict eight activists who it claimed had planned and supported the action from outside. This gambit failed spectacularly.
FRFI spoke to Yulia, who was arrested in November 2024, held for 15 months on remand and spuriously tried as an organiser, although her barrister told the court that the CPS has had so little evidence against her that ‘perhaps she should be called the invisible coordinator’. She told us:
‘I think that first of all – we see that despite the power imbalance between us and the bourgeois state we are still winning. We always knew that there is a political will amongst the general public to not convict activists motivated by humanitarian concern. The question arises – what is the CPS intending to do? Have a retrial each time they don’t get the result they hope for and waste millions of pounds of public money for the sake of some criminal damage convictions and protecting the interests of a foreign private company?’
A further hearing will now take place on 14 September to determine whether the second group of Filton activists will now face a retrial. This is the same date that FRFI comrade Sarah Cotte will be back in court for her own retrial, following a jury’s failure to convict her on charges under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act for ‘encouraging support for a proscribed organisation’. Like Sarah, Hanin Barghouti and Majid Freeman face retrials after juries failed to convict them under Section 12. Like the latest group of Filton defendants, the Moog 4, among others, are due to be retried, having not been convicted of direct action, despite having been arrested on site and in the act. Although the state through the CPS continues to be determined to retry activists until it obtains the punitive verdicts it craves, it is abundantly clear that juries have little appetite for sending political activists who stand with oppressed people against occupation and genocide to prison. Small wonder then, that the Labour government is hellbent on restricting access to jury trials.
Join us outside the Old Bailey on 14 September to support Sarah and the Filton 25. An injury to one is an injury to all! Supporting Palestine is not a crime!
Follow @freethefilton25 and @defendsoas2 for updates
Nicki Jameson
