Today a jury at the Old Bailey Central London Criminal Court unanimously declared our comrade Sarah Cotte Not Guilty, following her second trial on spurious Terrorism Act charges. This is a victory for all those who organise to defend the right of the Palestinian people to resist and a confirmation that when we stand firm, stand together and organise, we can win.
On 9 October 2023, two days after Operation Al Aqsa Flood, Sarah made a speech on behalf of the Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! Society at SOAS University in which she cited the Palestinian people’s internationally recognised legal right to armed resistance against oppression. Following a sustained campaign by on-line Zionists and the vindictive lawfare-mongering UK Lawyers for Israel, she was arrested in January 2024 and charged with two terrorism offences in March 2025.
A trial in June this year culminated in a mixed verdict, with an acquittal on one charge and a hung jury on the other. The Crown Prosecution Service then vindictively insisted on retrying Sarah on this count and today that too has resulted in a Not Guilty finding. Once again, while the British state continues to support the genocidal Zionist war machine, the ordinary people of the jury easily understood that, as we say on our protests: ‘Defending Palestine is not a crime!’
The Revolutionary Communist Group has vigorously and vociferously defended Sarah from the moment of her arrest, as we always defend our comrades when they come under state attack. As soon as Sarah was charged, and at the point that another comrade was arrested on identical charges (although not ultimately prosecuted) we set up the Defend the SOAS 2 campaign. Drawing on decades of experience of fighting against state repression, stretching back to the Irish and South African anti-apartheid struggles, we held public rallies and protested at every court appearance, unintimidated by the constant petty harassment from the police outside the court, always with an open mic on which all supportive individuals and organisations were invited to contribute. Sarah and other comrades also attended and spoke at the court protests, support rallies and public meetings for many other criminalised activists and solidarity campaigns.
In both her trials, Sarah responded to the charges against her politically, never backing down, never conceding ground to the attempts to force her to minimise or rescind her political support for the right of the risen Palestinian people to armed self-defence. Throughout the SOAS 2 campaign the RCG has emphasised both the right of oppressed people in Palestine to resist and our right to support that resistance. We have vocally put across on our protests and in our literature that we do not just think that this is an isolated ‘overreach’ by the state, but that we oppose all British anti-Terrorism legislation, from the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1974, which was used to criminalise the Irish community, to the Terrorism Act 2000 and all subsequent punitive laws. We have fought Sarah’s case politically and will do in every instance where our comrades come under state attack. We will never give up supporting the risen people of Palestine or opposing the British state’s attempt to criminalise our solidarity. We know that what we win on the streets we can win in the courts, and today’s verdict proves once again that when we organise, we can win.
