All but one of the Palestine Action activists on trial in Wolverhampton for planning to damage an Elbit Systems weapons factory have been found guilty, two by an 11-1 majority.
Activist Tony Greenstein said:
The jury has now returned verdicts. They have found 4 of us guilty, including myself, and one, Helen Caney they couldn’t reach agreement on. My decision was by 11-1 and so was Ibrahim Samadi. The others were unanimous.
Sentencing will be around 20 June and he has remanded us on bail, with conditions such as reporting to a police station once a week. He has emphasised that it ‘crosses the custody threshold’.
He also made reference to the ‘running commentary’ on the trial of my blogs and made it clear that unless I took them down, which I have done, I would be denied bail and cited for contempt of court. Disappointing of course but the fight goes on.
The judge and prosecution denied the activists the opportunity to defend their plan on the grounds of political necessity and avoiding complicity with war crimes as required by UK law.
Last night the jury had announced that it was deadlocked and was ordered by the judge to reach a majority verdict.
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