Four UK pro-Palestinian activists guilty of criminal damage over raid at Israeli firm Elbit

LONDON, ⁠May 5 (Reuters) - Four British pro-Palestinian activists ​were on Tuesday convicted of criminal damage relating to a 2024 raid on ​a ‌factory operated by Israeli defence firm Elbit, with one of the defendants ⁠found guilty of hitting a police officer with ⁠a sledgehammer.

Prosecutors at London's ​Woolwich Crown Court said the six defendants were members of the banned group Palestine Action, which organised the assault on the Elbit Systems UK ​facility ‌in Bristol, southwest England, in August 2024.

The raid, which prosecutors said caused about 1 million pounds ($1.36 million) of damage, took place around 10 months into Israel's bombardment of Gaza in response to a ​deadly attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023.

Palestine Action was later ‌proscribed under terrorism law, a decision which was ruled unlawful by London's High Court though the group ‌remains banned pending the government's appeal, which was heard last week.

The six defendants – Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema ​Zainab Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31 – had all denied ‌charges of criminal damage.

Head, Corner, Kamio and Rajwani were found guilty of the offence, while Rogers and Devlin were found not guilty.

Corner, who ⁠prosecutors ⁠said hit a police officer with a sledgehammer, ‌was convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Tuesday's verdicts follow an earlier trial, after ​which all six ​defendants were acquitted of aggravated burglary and ‌the previous jury could not reach verdicts on the criminal damage charges.

Prosecutors later dropped charges of violent disorder against all six defendants.