Palestine Action defendants standing trial in connection with a raid on an Elbit Systems factory decided to represent themselves on Wednesday and dispense with their defence lawyers, who they say are unable to represent them due to “decisions made by the court”.
Leona Kamio, 30, Charlotte Head, 29, Jordan Devlin, 31, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Samuel Corner, 23, face charges of criminal damage in connection with the break-in at the Israeli-owned factory at Filton, near Bristol, in August 2024.
Corner additionally faces a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent for allegedly striking a police officer with a sledgehammer.
Head, Devlin, Rajwani, Rogers and Kamio all opted to deliver their own closing speeches. Corner chose to retain his defence counsel.
The defendants, many of them tearful and with voices trembling, delivered their closing speeches themselves.
