100 public figures demand no terror sentencing for Filton 24 anti-genocide activists

Around 100 well-known public figures have signed an Artists for Palestine open letter describing the government’s plan to impose terror sentencing on four humanitarian activists as a “miscarriage of justice”.

Signatories include author Sally Rooney, activist Greta Thunberg, filmmaker Terry Gilliam, actor Steve Coogan, comedians Jen Brister and Alexei Sayle and law expert Lord John Hendy KC. After failing to gain convictions in their first trial, the state rigged the retrial of six ‘Filton 24’ activists to ensure convictions. The judge prevented the jury hearing that they had a right to acquit the defendants. He banned media from reporting on the fact that sentencing would be escalated as ‘terrorism’.

Even so, two activists were acquitted completely; all were acquitted of any violent intent. Four – Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, and Fatema Zainab Rajwani – were convicted of criminal damage to an Israeli weapons factory. Sentencing is scheduled for this Friday, 12 June 2026. The judge has refused to recuse himself from the sentencing hearing because of the conflict of interest in his long links to UK security services.

Feeble state excuse for the Filton 24

The letter’s signatories urge judge Jeremy Johnson to drop use of a ‘terrorism connection’ in Friday’s sentencing, because imposing such sentencing after banning mention of it during the trial would be to:

bypass the jury and sentence a group of protesters as terrorists would constitute an extremely grave miscarriage of justice, with consequences far beyond this case alone,

The letter, also signed by actors Zoë Wanamaker, Miriam Margolyes, and Zawe Ashton, Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd, Labour MP John McDonnell and musicians Charlotte Church and Kate Nash, notes the state’s feeble excuse for demanding terror sentencing: that the activists were trying to influence the Israeli government. Nobody believes the Israeli government was going to be influenced – the action was to damage weapons and save Palestinian lives.

Authors Marina Warner and Kamila Shamsie, scholars Paul Gilroy and Jewish academic Avi Shlaim, and actors Brian Cox and Tobias Menzies have all put their names to the call. Irish novelist Sally Rooney, herself a frequent target of Israel lobbyists for her stand against genocide, said:

Protest that poses no threat to the public simply is not terrorism. These activists may have knowingly risked their freedom in taking action, but they now face the prospect of punishment for crimes they were never convicted of and did not commit. This is an obvious effort to undermine solidarity with Palestine, but what it really undermines is UK law.

Singer Charlotte Church added:

The government failed in its duty to prevent genocide in Palestine. Now the courts are lashing out at young people who acted to try and stop it, when it’s those making weapons for Israel that should be facing jail.

Supporters have been asked to gather at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday to increase awareness of the state’s abuse of justice and process to protect Israel. The letter and signatories are reproduced below:

We, the undersigned, urge you to drop the use of the ‘terrorism connection’ in the sentencing of Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona (Ellie) Kamio, and Fatema Zainab Rajwani on June 12th 2026.

The four defendants were not charged with terrorism offences. They were not tried under terrorism laws. The jury was never informed of any proposed ‘terrorism connection’ during the trial and did not find any of the defendants guilty of any terror-related crimes. The proposed ‘terrorism connection’ is founded simply on a guilty verdict in relation to criminal damage. To bypass the jury and sentence a group of protesters as terrorists would constitute an extremely grave miscarriage of justice, with consequences far beyond this case alone.

It is a consensus view within the international legal community that Israel’s campaign of mass killing in Gaza has crossed the threshold of genocide. International law prohibits arms exports to any nation committing genocide or other atrocity crimes, but the UK has continued to supply Israel with weaponry. The defendants in this trial tried every means at their disposal to call for an end to this illegal arms supply: they marched in the streets, wrote to their MPs and joined university encampments. But the export of lethal weapons, and the mass killings they facilitated, continued.

Finally, in August 2024, the defendants took action. They entered a UK facility run by Israel’s largest arms producer, Elbit Systems, and dismantled weapons themselves. Their actions may well have saved lives. And yet, when facing trial, the defendants were not permitted to explain their motivations to the jury. Deprived of the full moral and humanitarian context, the jury found four of the six defendants guilty of ordinary criminal offences.

The conscientious motives of these activists – suppressed throughout the trial – may now be brought against them at the sentencing stage through the use of a ‘terrorism connection’. The only stated basis for this connection is that the defendants were ‘attempting to influence the Israeli government by restricting their access to weapons’. But virtually every international humanitarian organisation, including a group of expert UN Special Rapporteurs, has called for the same thing: the restriction of Israel’s access to weapons, in accordance with international law.

In this case, the purported ‘terrorism connection’ could extend the defendants’ prison sentences, require them to ‘rescind’ their deepest moral beliefs in order to be eligible for parole, and impose harsh restrictions on their freedoms even after their release. Never before has a link to terrorism been imposed at the sentencing stage in a criminal damage case. The implications for civil liberties in Britain are difficult to overstate.

Over 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including over 20,000 children. The Filton activists acted to uphold international law and defend human life. To sentence them on the basis of a ‘terrorism connection’ would not only be unjust and cruel: it would gravely undermine the right to protest and the impartiality of the judicial system itself. We demand that you reconsider before it is too late.

The Filton 24 letter has so far been signed by:

Alaa Abd El-Fattah, writer, campaigner, software developer
Khalid Abdalla, actor
Abubaker Abed, journalist
Susan Abulhawa, author
Mark Adderley, producer, director
Lolly Adefope, actor
Travis Alabanza, artist
Anthony Anaxagorou, poet, publisher
Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney
Zawe Ashton, actor, playwright
Krystel Ball, independent analyst
Ronan Bennett, screenwriter
Emma Breschi, model, DJ
Jen Brister, comedian
Dunstan Bruce, musician
Debbie Campbell, ecologist
Joanna Carolan ,comedian
Grace Chatto, musician
Louise Christian, solicitor
Charlotte Church, singer-songwriter, actor
Caryl Churchill, playwright
Steve Coogan, actor, comedian, writer
Brian Cox, actor
Jasmine Cruickshank (jasmine.4.t), musician
Clare Daly, former Member of European Parliament
Jessica Darrow, actor, singer
Siobhan Davies, artist
Robert Del Naja, musician
Mohammed El Kurd, author, poet
Theo Ellis, musician
Brian Eno, composer, producer
Paapa Essiedu, actor
Bobby Gillespie, singer-songwriter
Terry Gilliam, film director, screenwriter
Paul Gilroy, writer, scholar
Lambrini Girls, band
Kerry Godliman, actor and comedian
Denise Gough, actress
Katharine Hamnett, designer
Misan Harriman, photographer
Eleanor Harrison, director
Rima Hassan, Member of European Parliment
John Hendy QC
Billy Howle, actor
Noah Huntley, actor
Sue Jones, casting director
Mali Koa Hood, musician
Florence Kosky, director
Yorgos Lanthimos, film director
Ruth Lass, actor
Paul Laverty, screenwriter
Alex Lawther, actor
Sophie Lewis, writer, scholar
Ken Loach, film director
Mikaela Loach, writer
Lowkey, rapper
Moshé Machover, professor, philosopher
Shirley Manson, musician
Miriam Margolyes, actor
Francesca Martinez, comedian, writer
Victoria Mary Clarke, writer
John McDonnell MP
Tobias Menzies, actor
Kate Nash, musician
Nyome Nicholas-Williams, model, writer
Fionn ó Loingsigh, actor
Ardal O’Hanlon, actor
Lola Olufemi, writer, researcher
Alice Oswald, poet
Maxine Peake, actor
Max Porter, writer
Bella Ramsey, actor
David Renton, barrister, historian
Sally Rooney, writer
Nadia Sawalha, TV Presenter, actor
Alexei Sayle, comedian, author, broadcaster
Graeme Segal, scholar, mathematics
Nadine Shah, singer-songwriter
Kamila Shamsie, writer
Avi Shlaim, emeritus professor of International Relations
Laila Souief, assistant professor of mathematics
Jack Steadman, musician
Maggie Steed, actor
Rahel Stephanie, chef, writer
Juliet Stevenson, actor
Joelle Taylor, writer, poet
Greta Thunberg, campaigner
Zing Tsjeng, journalist
Yanis Varoufakis, economist, academic and author
Bobby Vylan, musician
Harsha Walia, author
Mick Wallace, former MEP
Harriet Walter, actor, author
Zoë Wanamaker, actor
Marina Warner, writer, historian
Roger Waters, musician
Boff Whalley, writer and Musician

Jeremy Corbyn has called on potential new PM Andy Burnham to guarantee an independent public inquiry into UK state collusion in Israel’s genocide. Keir Starmer’s war on UK justice and human rights should put him behind bars in the Hague.

Featured image via the Canary