Mira Hammad and Rosalind Burgin represent protesters charged with criminal damage for demonstration at Israeli-linked factory
17 June 2026
The jury trial at Birmingham Crown Court (pictured) has reached its seventh day. Credit: Richard OD / Shutterstock.
The jury continues to deliberate over criminal damage charges brought against four protesters who staged a demonstration at an aerospace factory they believe is involved in the supply of arms to Israel.
Garden Court North’s Mira Hammad and Rosalind Burgin represent co-defendants Hisham Alkhamesi and Hana Yun Stevens during the trial at Birmingham Crown Court, which today (17 June 2026) reaches its seventh day since it began on 4 June.
In August 2025, Mr Alkhamesi and Mx Yun Stevens scaled the roof of the arms factory in Wolverhampton to carry out a demonstration alongside co-defendants Iain Evans and Frank Sherman, with t-shirts baring the name “Palestine Martyrs Justice”.
As reported by BBC News, the group told the jury of their intentions to disrupt production and shipping at the factory because they believed it was supplying weapons to Israel, which were being used to enable genocide in Gaza.
During the trial, the jury was shown social media posts relating to the protest which described the arms factory as a manufacturer of fighter jet components supplied to Israel, Declassified UK reported.
Birmingham Crown Court heard that the co-defendants believed “the longer we stayed up there, the more lives we would save”, and that the group chose a bank holiday as there would be no night shift and “we didn’t want to potentially cause harm to anyone”, BBC News reported.
In closing statements, Mira told the court that Mr Alkhamesi was in some ways “the least likely person you could imagine to get on that roof”. As a “shy straight-A student”, he was not the type of person who would be expected to “climb onto the roof of an arms company”, as reported in Declassified UK.
Yet there was “no mystery about why the [four defendants] were there either”, Mira told the court. “It wasn’t for personal gain, to get anything for themselves”.
The explanation, she said, “was on their T-Shirts. It’s right there in the prosecution case” and “the tweet” discussing “military aircraft parts to Israel”.
The trial continues.
Mira is instructed to represent Mr Alkhamesi by Simon Natas of ITN Solicitors. Rosalind is instructed to represent Mx Yun Stevens by Nicola Hall of Robert Lizar Solicitors.
Tom Wainwright of Garden Court Chambers represents Mr Evans and Yvonne Karma of Doughty Street Chambers represents Mr Sherman.
Additional media
BBC News – Pro-Palestinian protester ‘wanted to shut factory’
Declassified UK – ‘We wanted to save lives’, Palestine activists tell court
For further information, please contact Alex Blair, Communications Manager at Garden Court North Chambers: ablair@gcnchambers.co.uk
