Palestine Action activists face being sentenced as terrorists over bank damage | Palestine Action
Five Palestine Action activists face prosecution as terrorists for smashing windows and throwing red paint at a Barclays Bank branch in Lancashire.
Brendon O’Hagan, 28; Amanda Kelly, 31; Humeera Atiqnisar, 31; Muhammad Malik, 28; and Alma Yaniv, 70, were found guilty of causing £212,000 of damage during a direct action protest in Burnley in August 2024. They targeted the bank because it held shares of Israeli arms company Elbit Systems.
Following the verdicts last month, judge Philip Parry told the prosecution and defense that he intended to consider there was a “terrorist link” to the crime, even though neither the jury nor the defendants had been previously informed of that possibility.
Last month four other Palestine Movement activists became the first defendants to be convicted of destruction of property, crimes committed during a raid on Elbit’s Filton factory near Bristol, which were deemed by Mr Justice Johnson post-conviction to have a “terrorist connection”.
Parry included Johnson’s ruling as he sought advice from lawyers on whether there was a terrorism link in the Barclays case.
Malik said: “The judge and the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] Now they’re trying to punish us as terrorists for red paint and some shattered glass. This goes well beyond the charges before the court and raises serious concerns about the increasing use of counter-terrorism legislation to persecute political opponents.
“The attempt to sentence us as terrorists is an example of the extremely dangerous precedent set by Judge Johnson, who convicted four Palestine Action protesters as terrorists for destroying Israeli quadcopter drones.”
Huda Ammori, co-founder of the Palestine Movement, said it was an example of Johnson’s decision “the floodgates bursting”.
The bank protest took place before Palestine Action was banned as a terrorist organization and was not considered a terrorist incident by the interior minister or the authorities.
Responding to Parry, the CPS argued that the Barclays five should be sentenced as terrorists, despite prosecutors not raising the possibility before or during the trial.
The Guardian understands the CPS’s terror links were only revealed by the defendants’ admissions at trial, including their links to the Palestine Movement, suggesting the protest was part of a wider campaign against Barclays.
Akiko Hart, director of human rights organization Liberty, said the case exposed “deep flaws in the UK’s counter-terrorism laws covering activities that most people would never consider terrorism”.
Labor MP and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “Prosecuting protesters who take direct action under the criminal law, only to then punish them under terrorism laws, can in no way be seen as fair or justifiable. This appears to be a practice specifically aimed at silencing the voices of people speaking out against the genocide in Gaza.”
Similar crimes committed by climate activists were not recognized as being linked to terrorism. For example, seven Extinction Rebellion protesters were given suspended sentences for causing more than £100,000 of damage by smashing the windows of Barclays’ London headquarters in 2023.
In the Filton case, activists were sentenced to long prison sentences. They will also be subject to a 15-year terrorism notification requirement if released, which includes informing the police of any new devices, relationships, bank accounts or addresses. Amnesty International and Liberty were among those criticizing the terrorist link finding, describing it as an abuse of counter-terrorism powers.
The sentence imposed on terrorists also means that defendants must serve at least two-thirds of their wages in prison for much longer than usual. They must rescind their political views in order to receive parole.
In October 2022, it was reported that Barclays sold all of its Elbit shares. The bank had previously said it held these weapons only in connection with customer-oriented transactions and that it was neither an investor nor a shareholder of the arms company.
Sentencing in the Burnley case is scheduled for September 4. The CPS and the judiciary declined to comment.
