A Story.🧵1/13 The house is on fire! The house is on fire! Let’s go! shout the firefighters. They do not move. For hundreds of days, they do not move.

The result will be read out live on this channel at 11AM today: youtube.com/@royalcourtsofju…

So I have just come back from the Pro-Palestine demonstration called by @palyouthmvmt, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network & co against the "Great Israeli Real Estate" event in Edgware, London and there are some real questions about the nature of the 1/6

Tomorrow the Court of Appeal rules on the ban of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. In February, the High Court ruled the ban unlawful. The Government decided to appeal this decision and police have continued to arrest people who have peacefully opposed the ban. Amnesty International has intervened in this case because the Palestine Action ban was a grave misuse by the government of sweeping counter terror powers.

RT @TheCanaryUK: What the hell is going on? Even Sadiq Khan has condemned the Israeli Real Estate conference at Edgware Road, yet the Met P…

The Court of Appeal will deliver its judgment on whether the Palestine Action ban is unlawful, at 11AM tomorrow. The result will be live streamed. I'll post the link tomorrow morning.

RT @GyllKing: No spines were shattered at Filton. The officer walked unaided from A&E. Later a small, hairline fracture to the transverse p…

Apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany needed compliant judges to provide a legal veneer to their darkest crimes. Judge Johnson joins their wretched company. He overturned a jury's conviction of four anti-genocide activists for criminal damage and sentenced them as terrorists instead. As one their barristers pointed out, the four defendants were initially arrested by police on suspicion of involvement in an act of terrorism. But the prosecution decided not to charge them with terrorism offences because it knew no jury would ever convict them based on the evidence. Instead the Crown held two trials: a sham one for the jury, and the real one conducted in secret by the judge. That is not justice. It is a show trial worthy of the worst tyrannical regimes.

I spent all day in Woolwich Crown Court yesterday for the Filton activists' sentencing hearing with my colleague @daniaakkad. The court heard that the Terrorism Act was never intended to cover direct action protest. It heard that all of the defendants had been cleared of violent intent and sentencing them as terrorists would mark a historic first for charges of criminal damage. It heard that the Suffragettes, who did "a bit of smashing themselves", would have been labelled as terrorists but have now been vindicated by history. It heard the activists' goal was to stop the supply chain of drones and weaponry to Israel as it commits genocide in Gaza. It heard that attaching a terrorism connection to a case without it ever being heard by a jury was unconstitutional and posed a threat to the criminal justice system itself. It heard that the "terrorism connection" has been disproportionately used against minority groups and those advocating for them while not being used for neo-Nazis and white supremacists, including the man who killed Jo Cox MP. It heard that the law has been reinterpreted since the action took place, meaning the activists could have had no idea that what they did could have been caught up in terrorism laws at the time of the protest. It heard that the prosecution submitted key evidence just eight days before the hearing, giving the defence no time to review it or even discuss it with their clients. Despite all of this, Judge Jeremy Johnson, who has already tried to refer the defence's lead barrister for contempt of court and been forced to apologise for it, sentenced the defendants as terrorists. The judgment was handed down within minutes, indicating Judge Johnson had already made his mind up before the hearing had begun. Being in court yesterday felt akin to witnessing a colonial crime: punishing activists with terrorism offences in order to set a precedent that taking direct action to stop a UK-backed genocide will not be tolerated.

This is the moment that activists heard about the sentencing of four Palestine Action protesters under terror laws. 'The same sentence for murder', one person said 📽️

25 years for saying no to genocide. Activist in the UK repeatedly warned people about Starmer. Like people in Australia have been repeatedly warning us about Chris Minns, @AlboMP and Jillian Segal.

A Palestine Action activist gave a defiant cry after being sentenced to six years in prison for criminal damage with a “terrorist connection”, after smashing up an Israeli weapons factory. Following her sentencing, Charlotte Head, 29, shouted, “In order to hear the birds, the warplanes must be silent”, referencing Palestinian poet Marwan Makhoul. Supporters of the activists erupted into applause as Head and her fellow activists were ushered out of the Woolwich Crown Court. Head, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona (Ellie) Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, were found guilty of criminal damage in May after breaking into a factory in Filton, near Bristol, owned by Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit in 2024. Corner was also convicted of grievous bodily harm without intent. They were sentenced on Friday. Head was handed a custodial sentence of six years less 45 days and disqualified from driving for four years. Kamio was sentenced to six years less 45 days. Rajwani was sentenced to five years and eight months less 45 days. Corner was sentenced to a combined eight years and eight months for both offences. At Woolwich Crown Court on Friday Justice Jeremy Johnson said there was an “exceptionally high degree of planning and premeditation” in the case, telling the activists: “You sought to glorify criminality and vigilantism” by livestreaming and filming the raid. The harms caused were “exceptionally high” he said. The judge found that there was a terrorist connection as the raid was aimed at “shutting down Elbit and ending what they regarded as British complicity in Israeli war crimes” and to “intimidate it into ceasing operations or cause the government to prevent it from operating”. Throughout the trial the activists had tried to argue that they were motivated by a humanitarian desire to disrupt Israeli military operations. Justice Johnson found the activists’ motivation to be an aggravating factor.

Scale of sentences on the 4 young people who took direct action against the arms supplier to Israel is truly shocking. To impose years of imprisonment for protesting to save lives in Gaza is unjust, especially sentencing on terrorist grounds they were never convicted of by a jury

This is barbaric. They were not permitted to explain to the jury why they carried out the attack on the Elbit factory - which makes the weapons that kill Palestinian children. And the jury was never told they would be sentenced as terrorists. /1

NEWS: Filton 4 sentenced as terrorists and handed special custodial measures despite never being charged with, or convicted of, a terrorism offence. Samuel, Charlotte, Leona, & Fatema have all already been inside for almost 2 years. More at defendourjuries.net/savingli…

how is this not kidnapping at this point? political prisoners at a minimum.

"Judge Johnson kept the jury in the dark of his plans to sentence the four as terrorists. This is the first time in British legal history that anyone has been sentenced as a terrorist for damaging property." Please RT until this is both the 1st & last time. Thank you.

There’s been 107 arrests of Palestine Action supporters outside Woolwich Crown Court here today as protesters await the sentencing of four of the Filton 25 who took direct action against Elbit Systems. Judge today said there was a “terrorist connection”.

🚨BREAKING -- The Palestine Action defendants have been sentenced for a combined total of more than 25 years. Charlotte Head - 6 years Leona Kamio - 6 years Fatema Zainab - 5 years and 8 months Samuel Corner - 8 years and 8 months

🚨BREAKING: Filton 4 sentenced as terrorists Amnesty opposes the use of terrorism powers in this case. It is completely disproportionate to punish protesters for criminal damage as if they were terrorists, a sentence which stays with you for life. The defendants in today’s case were sentenced as terrorists because prosecutors want to make an example of them. Today's decision shows how direct action protesters could be treated in the future. The use of terrorism laws against direct action protesters must end. Together we must continue calling out the abuse of power and fighting for our right to protest. Read our position: Criminal Damage, Direct Action, Terrorism: Misuse of counter-terrorism powers in the UK: amn.st/6015B87ZCx

BREAKING: Judge Johnson has confirmed the Filton Four will be sentenced based on a 'terrorist connection'. This heart breaking news comes despite the protestors never being charged or convicted of terror offences or violent intent.