This is classic selective outrage and misleading spin. Bu
@mehdirhasan
Here is what actually happened. Facts over narrative.
In August 2024, four Palestine Action activists, Charlotte Head, Leona Kamio, Fatema Rajwani, and Samuel Corner, carried out a planned raid on the Elbit Systems factory near Bristol. They rammed a prison van through the gates. Armed with sledgehammers and crowbars, they smashed 1.2 million pounds worth of military equipment and drones while livestreaming their so-called direct action. Samuel Corner struck Police Sergeant Kate Evans in the back with a sledgehammer, fracturing her spine. She suffered months off work, ongoing pain, panic attacks, and had to step down from her rank. The judge called it extreme and gratuitous force.
At the retrial in Woolwich Crown Court, the jury convicted all four of criminal damage. Corner was also convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm. On 12 June 2026, Mr Justice Johnson sentenced them: Corner received 7 years and 8 months, Head and Kamio received 5 years each, and Rajwani received 4 years and 8 months. They face terrorist notification requirements and must serve at least two-thirds of their sentences before parole eligibility.
Now let us address Mehdi’s claims directly.
First, he says three of the four did not attack the police officer. Technically only Corner swung the sledgehammer. But all four participated in a coordinated, armed break-in. UK law holds participants in a joint criminal enterprise responsible for foreseeable violence during the crime. Claiming the others were just smashing equipment while ignoring their role in the violent raid is weak misdirection.
Second, he claims all four were cleared of violent intent. This is flatly false. The jury convicted them after reviewing the videos, weapons, damage, and planning evidence. There was no acquittal on the violence. Corner’s GBH conviction proves the opposite. Mehdi is simply inventing an outcome that never occurred.
Third, he calls it a clear miscarriage of justice. This was a full jury trial with defence representation. The judge applied standard sentencing law. Under Section 69 of the Sentencing Act 2020, after conviction the judge can find a terrorist connection as an aggravating factor when the offence involves serious damage to property, is designed to intimidate, and advances a political or ideological cause. All three elements were met here. That is not abuse of anti-terror laws. It is the law working as intended. Losing the case does not create a miscarriage.
Finally, linking this to government complicity in genocide is pure partisan rhetoric. The terrorist connection finding is based on evidence, not a new charge. Genocide remains Mehdi’s slogan, not a settled UK legal conclusion or final ICJ ruling on Israel’s actions against Hamas following the October 7 massacre. Disliking UK foreign policy does not excuse 1.2 million pounds in criminal damage and assaulting a police officer.
These were not peaceful protesters holding signs. Palestine Action is a proscribed terrorist group. They chose violence, glorified it on camera, and injured an officer doing her job. Believing a company is wrong does not grant a free pass to smash it up.
Chris Philp was right. Smashing property and attacking police with sledgehammers is not protest. It is violence. Mehdi’s post is textbook duplicitous spin: downplay the crime, invert the facts, and cry miscarriage and genocide. The jury, the evidence, and the judge saw through it. So should everyone else.
3 of the 4 people didn’t attack the police officer and all of the 4 were cleared of violent intent. So the only disgrace here is the lie you’re telling to justify a clear miscarriage of justice & the use of anti-terror laws to justify your government’s complicity in a genocide.