Palestine Action protest case dismissed

24 October 2022

The case against a group of three protestors from the Palestine Action group was dismissed last week, on the first day of the three-day trial, following defence submissions.

On the anniversary of the signing of the Balfour Declaration last November, protestors scaled a building that they believe to be involved in the export of military equipment direct from the Bristol site to Israel.

The protestors, represented by Garden Court North’s Mira Hammad and Rosalind Burgin, were being prosecuted under section 68 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, for “disrupting lawful activity”.

Following cross examination of Police officers and a representative of the “defense and homeland security company” renting the building, Mira and Rosalind, of our criminal defence and appeals team, made a submission of “no case to answer,” arguing that the prosecution had raised “no direct evidence of lawful activity on the site,” or of any “disruption”.

District Judge Mark Wattam stated:

“The Defence submission is that there is no case for three Defendants to answer… It is right that I can discharge the case at this stage if an essential element of offence missing.

“In short terms, unusually, I am going to discharge case at this stage. I don’t think any reasonable tribunal would convict the Defendants of the offence as charged.”