Mother of jailed Palestine Action activist says case was a ‘stitch-up’: ‘My daughter was not given a fair trial’

A. Palestine Action activist sentenced to prison as a terrorist in a raid on an Israel-linked defense factory is “in stitches”, his mother says.

Leona “Ellie” Kamio was among four defendants jailed after causing £1.2 million of damage at an Elbit Systems factory near Bristol in August 2024.

But legal experts and campaigners warned the judge’s decision to sentence the raid on the grounds that it was an “act of terrorism” without telling the jury was “chilling”.

“I think it’s pretty clear that all the rules of democracy have completely gone out the window,” said Kamio’s mother, Emma. Independent.

Arguing that her daughter was not treated fairly because the jury did not know that the defendants could be punished as terrorists, Ms. Kamio warned that “the slippery slope to authoritarianism is already here.”

“They did not have a fair trial,” Ms. Kamio said. “The jury didn’t know what was in store for them. Everything was in stitches.”

The 30-year-old daughter, who was previously acquitted of aggravated burglary at a hearing in February this year, faced a retrial with new restrictions.

The group, along with Samuel Corner, 23, Fatema Rajwani, 21, and Charlotte Head, 30, were found guilty of criminal damage.

Corner was also found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm without intent after striking Sergeant Kate Evans with a sledgehammer, breaking her spine. The two were sentenced to 26 years and 4 months in prison, while Kamio was sentenced to six years in prison.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the courtroom to hear the sentence, and Kamio shouted, “Warplanes must be silent so we can hear the birds,” a reference to Palestinian poet Marwan Makhoul.

Two other defendants – Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31 – were acquitted of the same charge by a jury at Woolwich Crown Court last month.

Ms. Kamio described her daughter as “a geek who’s never been in trouble before.” As a young musician, he was part of an up-and-coming band signed to Island Records, the label that made Amy Winehouse and U2 famous, among many others.

He then continued to work Deputy magazine before becoming a teacher at a private day school in Walthamstow, London. Described as a nature lover, the woman’s dream is to live on a farm and take care of the land. His school has since told him he could always return to work.

Ms. Kamio, who was arrested by riot police for the crime and later released, said of the defendants: “If you look at them, you’ll see they are six cows.” “You have four young daughters, three of whom are autistic, all college students who have never been in trouble in their lives.”

As part of their sentences, the so-called Filton 4s will receive an additional year of license and be subject to 15-year terrorism reporting requirements and will report their every move to authorities for years after their release.

This case was the first in which protesters were convicted as terrorists for damaging property without intent to harm a person. At the heart of the case is ongoing anger over the treatment of Palestinians, which has led to regular protests in cities such as London and Bristol.

Like many protesters, Kamio struggled to keep track of what was happening in the war-torn region, where authorities say more than 20,000 children have been killed since October 2023, and felt he had to do something. A UN investigation found Israel committed genocide against Palestinians, but the state denies the allegations.

“He was working at Forest with these little kids whose concepts of right and wrong were so simple,” his mother says. “It’s all black and white. Then he would go home and see little kids losing their families, being scared, not having a home, and that’s what set him off.

“Nelson Mandela was classified as a terrorist and now there is a statue of him in parliament,” he added.

Ms Kamio says her daughter’s sentence has already had a wider impact on the family’s lives and claims she was refused a mortgage after lenders claimed it could “damage the reputation” of the company.

Kamio’s previous boss, former Deputy Editor-in-chief Zing Tseng also took to social media to criticize the case.

“Even though he was convicted of criminal damage, he was convicted as a terrorist,” Tseng said of his former employee. “To me, it’s absolutely crazy and it affects me because I worked with him.

“If you walk across east London for a night out, you’ll see 10,000 Ellie’s having a girly drink with their mates and then on Monday they’ll be doing their social media thing. That could literally be any of us. That pretty much opens the door for anyone taking direct action to be punished as a terrorist.”

The sentences were also condemned by MPs, lawyers, rights groups, campaigners and celebrities. Sally Rooney, Greta Thunberg, Steve Coogan and Lord John Hendy KC, Paul Gilroy, Zoe Wanamaker, John McDonnell MP are among those who have signed a letter calling for the move. the punishment is “unfair”.

Rosalind Burgin, a solicitor at the firm representing the Kamio Garden Court North flats, said: “What is particularly new in this case is that criminal damage alone (i.e. nothing to do with violence against a person, nothing to do with harming a person) is being prosecuted as a terrorist offence.

“We don’t know of any other case where this has happened. There have been cases where murder has been punished with a terrorist connection, but this has not happened.”

“This is just a matter of property and there is no allegation of violence against an individual. This is a completely unprecedented part. If this continues, it would be a real threat to wider protests.”

Independent The Crown Prosecution Service and the Coroner’s Office have been contacted for comment. The Ministry of Justice conveyed its opinion on the issue to the Courthouse.

The lead prosecutor in the case, Deanna Heer KC, said the “ideology” of Palestine Action was to “liberate Palestine from Israel” and argued that the activists wanted to influence the UK and Israeli government.

He said a training manual touching on Britain’s “imperial” role in the Middle East showed the crackdown was trying to advance a political cause.

“They began destroying as much property as possible inside the warehouse,” he said.

Judge Johnson accepted the prosecution’s argument and found it sufficient to establish a “terrorist connection.”

“Ms. Heer argues that the defendants’ conduct was carried out in furtherance of a political or ideological purpose,” the criminal court document said.

“It is based on evidence that the Palestine Movement’s aims are to influence government decisions or policies against the arms trade in the UK insofar as it supports Israel, and to intimidate targets in the ‘shut down Elbit’ campaign. Ms Heer argues that these are clearly political and ideological reasons.”

Sentencing, Judge Johnson added: “I am satisfied that each defendant’s offense of criminal damage involved serious damage to property, was designed to influence the UK government and intimidate a section of the public, and was intended to further an ideological or political cause.”

Days after the sentence was handed down, the Court of Appeal ruled that Palestine Action’s ban under terrorism laws was lawful, a major win for the government.

The group was banned by then home secretary Yvette Cooper in July 2025 after members broke into RAF Brize Norton and damaged jets to protest the war in Gaza.

Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr told the Court of Appeal on Monday that the government’s decision to ban the group was a “justified and proportionate interference with individual rights”.

Baroness Carr said it was “inaccurate” to describe Palestine Action as “an ordinary protest group”, saying the group was “engaged in causing serious damage to property” and “presents a serious risk of injury not only to property but also to citizens”.

In their ruling, the Court of Appeal judges said Palestine Action “has little or nothing in common with women’s rights activists or groups anti-apartheid or protesting the Iran war.”