Palestine Action defendants are facing sentencing as terrorists despite being convicted of criminal damage, lifted reporting restrictions reveal.

After reporting restrictions were lifted on Tuesday, Middle East Eye is now able to report for the first time that the court will seek to add a “terrorism connection” to their charges at sentencing - a fact that was kept secret from the jury.

Reporting restrictions also barred media from revealing that the defendants had been prohibited from explaining the motivations for their involvement in the raid to jurors.

Prior to the initial trial, the judge had ruled to remove the defence of lawful excuse on the charge of criminal damage, which meant the activists could not argue that the damage they caused was legally justified to prevent greater crimes being committed by Israel’s military in Gaza.

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[–] 131 points 4 months ago (7 children)

The game is rigged and the UK has decided it is an accomplice to crimes against humanity.

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  • [–] 52 points 4 months ago

    They are an active participant, taking pleasure in it. This prosecution, and what it has shown of their character, being so full of hate for those protesting genocide, had given lie to the labour party's bullshit.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago

    A bunch of the Labour top team are in the "Labour Friends of Israel" group. Starmer is in it, Streeting is in it. As is anybody else with a chance, because anyone else is in the "antisemite" group, and not allowed to do anything.

    Don't expect this to change. Farage or the Tories wouldn't change it either.

    Us and the septics set Israel up. It's our little project, and we can't do much apart from voting Green (who are now also smeared as antisemites and run by fundamentalist Muslims, despite being run by a gay Jew). Even then the US would prop them up forever. As long as oil is a thing, they need Israel to project power on the Middle East.

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    [–] 72 points 4 months ago (18 children)

    I realize this is the UK, where their judicial system is still rooted in the authority of the crown, and not the people, but in any civilized country, putting one charge to trial and sentencing them for another is not justice.

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    [–] 57 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah this is actually insane. DO NOT LET THIS GO.

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  • [–] 46 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    Absurd argument dismissing basically all context as "irrelevant" such as they have the right to stop genocidal weapon shipments.

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  • [–] 29 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    The fact that that is an option for the judge is insane. That a judge can just be like, "I literally don't give a shit about this topic. In fact it's illegal for you to mention it, regardless of the relevance."

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  • [–] 16 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Yep and this happens in a lot of different court cases like you see it often in average criminal trials where the judge throws out information and bans it due to "irrelevance" when it obviously is very relevant.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    What is the check and balance mechanism for this? Judges can't act arbitrarily - they need to adhere to a standard I imagine

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  • [–] 42 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    This from the same judge who tried to hold their lawyer in contempt and had it thrown out by a higher court in the span of, like, a day?

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  • [–] [S] 36 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

    Indeed. judge "Justice Johnson" is the one doing all these wildly draconian moves to get Palestine Action convicted as terrorists. His name is straight out of a comic book

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgp5k0ex1zo

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  • [–] 40 points 4 months ago

    Reporting restrictions also barred media from revealing that the defendants had been prohibited from explaining the motivations for their involvement in the raid to jurors.

    Signs of a healthy legal system and society.

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  • [–] 35 points 4 months ago (3 children)
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    [–] 33 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Convicted for one crime and sentenced for another? Sounds like freedom and democracy!

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  • [–] 25 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    It's difficult to believe that this is legal and won't be thrown out by a higher court on appeal.

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  • [–] 25 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    And the muppets over there claim they live in a country with Rule Of Law...

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  • [–] 24 points 4 months ago

    If you have to hide significant evidence from the jury, that's a pretty good indication you're doing something wrong.

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  • [–] 19 points 4 months ago (1 child)
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    [–] 18 points 4 months ago*

    Europe is starting to act a lot more like Nazi Germany & Nazi Israel. Wonder how many people are caught up in Netanyahu's trafficking of minors. My guess is it is thousands... All those Christian Nationalists they invite over there.

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  • [–] 16 points 4 months ago (12 children)

    Half of the UK parliament is chosen by the monarch. The other half is chosen through the problematic and undemocratic first past the post voting system. UK streets have CCTV everywhere. UK libel laws are extreme. The state-owned media defends pedophiles and transphobes, while the private media focuses on gossip and lies rather than reporting on the news (on top of also defending transphobes and pedophiles, of course).

    It's time for people to admit to themselves that the UK, especially England, is a dictatorship.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Half of the UK parliament is chosen by the monarch.

    No.

    The other half is chosen through the problematic and undemocratic first past the post voting system.

    Yes.

    UK streets have CCTV everywhere.

    It's not the CCTV you want to worry about. The CCTV is overwritten regularly and typically goes nowhere. It's the internet-connected stuff you wanted to worry about, and the blanket surveillance by Google and meta. Carrying a smartphone and worrying about CCTV while you post pictures of yourself where LLMs can scrape them is utterly irrational.

    It’s time for people to admit to themselves that the UK, especially England, is a dictatorship.

    No, just a half-police state. But at least you tend not to get murdered by the police for being black in charge of a vehicle in the UK, and the healthcare is free.


    This, though, this is AWFUL and they went OUT OF THEIR WAY to deny these people justice. If you deny the defendants the right to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, you have denied them justice.

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    [–] 12 points 4 months ago

    That's not normal...

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Wow, Israel really does have a hunch of powerful UK politicians and judges by the balls, doesn't it?

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago (1 child)
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    [–] 6 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    B I R T H S T R I K E

    UK citizens need to stand up to the UK government with a simple message: do what we fucking say or we will march straight off a demographic cliff. No reproduction without representation. No reproduction while the government supports the bombing of children elsewhere.

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  • [–] 20 points 4 months ago*

    So many people can’t even change their shopping habits to make more ethical choices. There’s no way a sizeable population is going to forego passing on their DNA just to send a message.

    As a teen, I figured I’d adopt kids when I got older. The amount of people who were dead-set on “b-b-but my genetic lineage!” was startling. As I’ve aged through my 20s and now my 30s, I’ve seen them stick true to their word and have their own babies, even with the world circling down the drain. The biological call to reproduce seems to override a lot of other matters.

    Now consider how hard it is to get people to quit something without a biological imperative, like shopping on Amazon…

    Anyway, I admire your initiative. I just can’t imagine people participating en masse in a protest that involves forfeiting something so dear and intimate to them as their choice to reproduce.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago*

    You're just a right wing psy op to repress the birth of future left leaning voters! /s (I got inspired by recent comments I've seen)

    But it's an interesting idea that could royally screw with a country if followed through. But I think it has abysmal chances of actually happening. Choosing to not have kids when a couple is both willing and able is an incredibly large sacrifice to those that want kids. And you wouldn't see if such a strike worked until 9 months later (or a not earlier since there wouldn't be as many pregnancy scans).

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago

    People need to read about Aggravation

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