Palestine Action activists who smashed up an Israeli-linked defence firm, leaving millions of pounds in damage and a female police officer severely injured, have demanded a ‘bias’ judge be blocked from the case.
Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Rajwani were all found guilty of criminal damage last month at Woolwich Crown Court over the raid in the early hours of August 6, 2024.
Corner was also found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm after he fractured a female police officer’s spine during the incursion at the Elbit Systems factory in Bristol.
The four protestors, who justified their action as being necessary to protect Palestinians, rammed into the site using an old prison van before taking sledgehammers and crowbars to the company’s equipment and property.
The group are set to be sentenced next Friday, when Mr Justice Johnson is expected to consider whether their crime had a ‘terrorist connection’ and if they should be handed a longer prison term as a result.
However the defendants are planning to demand on Monday for the replacement of the judge at a hearing at the Old Bailey.
Campaign group Defend Our Juries is also lodging a complaint with the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, accusing the same judge of misconduct.
While activists are expected to demonstrate outside Woolwich Crown Court on Friday during the sentencing hearing, where they plan to openly oppose the Government’s order to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group.
Samuel Corner (pictured) was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm after he fractured a police officer’s spine during the course of the raid
Police sergeant Kate Evans told jurors at an earlier hearing how she believed her spine could have been ‘shattered’ and feared she may have been ‘paralysed’ after being hit by the activist
According to Defend Our Juries, supporters will hold placards at the demonstration in south-east London which read: ‘Saving lives is not terrorism. I support Palestine Action.’
Palestine Action was banned as a terrorist organisation by the State in Summer 2025, causing Mr Justice Johnson to rule at pre-trial hearings in November the charges in the case had a ‘terrorist connection’.
The judge also barred that ruling from being told to the juries who heard the case at a trial and a subsequent retrial.
Yet the controversial move was declared unlawful by the High Court in February.
Mr Justice Johnson may still consider a terror link to the raid on the Elbit factory when he passes sentence on June 12, in spite of the High Court ruling.
Activists now believe they are about to be sentenced ‘as terrorists’, and argue it is unfair that the jury is kept ignorant of this given the potential consequence of this if they are found guilty of criminal damage.
Two co-defendants were found not guilty by the jury at the retrial of criminal damage, while they were cleared of violent disorder and aggravated burglary charges.
The bid to remove the judge from the case comes after he referred one of the defence barristers, Rajiv Menon KC, for a possible contempt of court prosecution.
Corner was among a group of Palestine Action activists found guilty of raiding the defence firm’s UK site and destroying equipment with sledgehammers and crowbars
Charlotte Head (pictured), 30, was driving a prison van that was used as a ‘battering ram’ to break into the Elbit facility, Woolwich Crown Court heard
This came after Mr Menon allegedly breached the judge’s order in his closing speech in the first trial, prompting an outcry in the legal community. The Court of Appeal subsequently ruled the way the referral had been done was wrong.
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries accused the judge of ‘bias’ and ‘abuse of process’, suggesting he had overseen a ‘grave miscarriage of justice’.
‘Given the widespread concerns that have been raised, Justice Johnson should remove himself from these proceedings.
‘The use of secret terror sentencing – for the first time in British history – against protesters who sought to save lives by disrupting the supply of weapons to Israel, demonstrates the dangerous consequences of Palestine Action’s proscription.
‘It makes a mockery of counter-terrorism legislation: those acting to prevent death and destruction are being treated as terrorists.’
Defend Our Juries said more than 2,600 people – including lawyers, law professors, retired police officers and magistrates – have signed the complaint to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO).
‘It should not be possible for observers to discern the political opinions of a judge,’ it reads.
‘No rational observer, however, is left in any doubt regarding the political opinions of Mr Justice Johnson.
Fatema Rajwani (pictured), 21, was among six defendants standing trial – she was found guilty of criminal damage
Leona Kamio (pictured) ,30, was found guilty of criminal damage by jurors deliberating for 14 hours
‘His rulings are consistent only with a personal conviction that the Israeli government should be free to break international law and to slaughter Palestinians.
‘Taken together, these three incidents amount to a pattern of exceptional, biased and discriminatory conduct on the part of the judge, for which he should be held to account through the JCIO.’
The JCIO complaint suggests bias was behind the contempt of court proceedings initiated against Mr Menon and also argues that the decision to remand Head, Kamio and Rajwani in custody ahead of their sentencing hearing was ‘vindictive’.
A Court of Appeal ruling on the legality of the Palestine Action proscription is expected on June 15.
Until the legal battle is over, the Metropolitan Police has committed to using anti-terrorism powers to arrest Palestine Action supporters, although court proceedings for those who have been charged – Head, 29, Corner, 23, Kamio, 30, and Rajwani, 21 – have been temporarily halted.
