Palestine Action defendants drop lawyers and self-represent due to ‘decisions made by the court’

Palestine Action defendants drop lawyers and self-represent due to ‘decisions made by the court’ Katherine Hearst on Wed, 04/29/2026 - 17:26 Defendants make own closing speeches before the jury as trial in London nears an end Protesters outside Woolwich Crown Court in London, where alleged Palestine Action activists are on trial (AFP) Off Palestine Action defendants standing trial in connection with a raid on an Elbit Systems factory decided to represent themselves on Wednesday and dispense with their defence lawyers, who they say are unable to represent them due to “decisions made by the court”. Leona Kamio, 30, Charlotte Head, 29, Jordan Devlin, 31, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Samuel Corner, 23, face charges of criminal damage in connection with the break-in at the Israeli-owned factory at Filton, near Bristol, in August 2024. Corner additionally faces a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent for allegedly striking a police officer with a sledgehammer. Head, Devlin, Rajwani, Rogers and Kamio all opted to deliver their own closing speeches. Corner chose to retain his defence counsel. The defendants, many of them tearful and with voices trembling, delivered their closing speeches themselves. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); When addressing the jury, Head said she was making the speech herself due to “decisions made by the court” that meant that her barrister was “no longer able to represent me”. She spoke of the importance of the jury, and said that proposed government reforms are aimed at getting “rid of juries altogether”. “They are afraid of the power you hold as a jury,” Head told the court. The defendant said that she pleaded not guilty to damaging property because “they were weapons” and that she believed she “was legally justified in doing what I did”. Palestine Action defendants targeted Elbit's use of ‘deadly AI’, court hears Read More » She told jurors that despite “events” that unfolded in the aftermath of October 2023 being “deemed irrelevant”, “we all know what those events are”. Head recounted her experience of witnessing violence perpetrated against migrants and refugees while she was volunteering in France’s Calais. “I knew it was money from the British government that was funding the violence I was witnessing,” she said, her voice breaking as she tried to hold back tears. Similarly, she attributed the “events in late October 2023” to “UK complicity in housing weapons manufacturers on our soil”. “The devastation I had witnessed in Calais was happening on an exponential scale,” she said. “Watching a genocide live-streamed on my phone, I couldn’t sit back and do nothing when I knew once again our government was directly involved.” Head described how, prior to signing up to participate in the raid, she had “tried everything”. She said she wrote to her MP, only receiving an automated response, and joined national marches “while cities and people were still being reduced to dust”. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); While Head noted that her motivations for joining Palestine Action are “not considered relevant evidence”, she said she joined during a protest encampment outside Hackney Town Hall in London, calling on the local council to disinvest from Israeli arms. “I signed up after months of campaigning and pleading. I can tell you I had no other choice, no other options were available because we tried them all,” she said. Words ‘blacklisted’ In her closing speech, Rogers cited evidence heard by the court relating to the “factories on British soil” manufacturing weapons for Israel, and research and development carried out by the UK which was “vital” for the Israeli military. She said that the court had heard that the Elbit Systems site targeted by the group was “visited by the Israeli ambassador” and that “it holds export licences to Israel”. She added that Elbit is the “backbone of the Israeli military”. Rogers said that before the incident in Filton, she and her co-defendants had “tried every democratic means available to us”, but that “none of it worked”. 'I had no other choice, no other options were available because we tried them all' - Charlotte Head, defendant She noted that, throughout the three-week-long trial, jurors “might have noticed certain words have been blacklisted, that, until our speeches, the word ‘genocide’ hasn’t been said once”. “It's almost as if topics of conversation have been banned,” Rogers said. “The prosecution knows full well that we are right that this factory is supplying weapons to Israel to be used in Gaza,” she said, adding that “they are choosing to suppress the truth rather than contest it”. Rogers emphasised to the jurors that she had a “whole lot to lose by going to prison”, and that she actually intended to be arrested going into the factory. She told jurors that to find her and her co-defendants guilty of criminal damage, they “have to be sure”. “How can you be sure, when you know that you haven’t heard the whole truth?” she asked them. Bursting into tears, she said: “There’s one thing you can be sure of, I’m proud, so proud I took part in this.” Palestine Action News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0