{"id":108100,"date":"2026-08-21T11:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108100\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T11:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:21:09","slug":"very-unusual-uk-palestine-activists-could-be-sentenced-as-terrorists-courts-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108100\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Very unusual\u2019: UK Palestine activists could be sentenced as terrorists | Courts News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preston, United Kingdom \u2013 Five Palestine Action activists in the United Kingdom are set to hear whether terrorism-linked offences could be included in their sentencing.<\/p>\n

Brendon O\u2019Hagan, 28, Amanda Kelly, 31, Hmeera Atiqnisar, 31, Mohammed Malik, 28, and Alma Yaniv, 70, were convicted in June of causing 212,000 pounds ($290,000) in damages during a direct action against a branch of Barclays Bank in the town of Burnley in Lancashire in August 2024. The activists were protesting against the bank\u2019s shareholdings in the Israeli defence company Elbit Systems.<\/p>\n

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On Friday, Preston Crown Court is expected to determine whether the five activists, who are scheduled to be sentenced on September 4, will face terrorism sentencing.<\/p>\n

According to leading criminal lawyer Raj Chada, of the firm Hodge Jones & Allen, which has defended a number of Palestine Action activists, \u201cterrorist connection\u201d laws date back years, but only appear to have been applied recently and solely in Palestine Action cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, in our experience, using the law like this is very, very unusual and appears to be being used to target Palestine Action activists whose offence predates the banning of the group,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Left:Left: Alma Yaniv. Top row from left: Hmeera Atiqnisar and Brendon O\u2019Hagan. Bottom row from left: Mohammed Malik and Amanda Kelly [Courtesy of Defend Our Juries]<\/p>\n

At the time of their verdicts, Palestine Action had not been proscribed<\/a> as a terrorist group. Neither the defendants nor the jury were aware that terrorism charges might be involved.<\/p>\n

However, following the verdicts, trial judge Philip Parry notified the defendants\u2019 legal team that he intended to consider whether the offence carried a \u201cterrorist connection\u201d. Parry made a similar move after circulating a ruling from a case in June, during which four Palestine Action activists convicted of criminal damage at Elbit Systems\u2019 Filton site near Bristol were sentenced as terrorists nearly two years after their protest at Woolwich Crown Court in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the best of our knowledge, the only time this law was used in relation to direct action protest groups was against those convicted at Filton,\u201d said Chada, outlining laws used by prosecutors to target the offence rather than the individual or group that had carried it out.<\/p>\n

The activists\u2019 supporters have also raised questions about Robert Altham, the judge who will decide whether to add a \u201cterrorist connection\u201d to criminal damage convictions. His previous sentencing of environmental protesters in September 2018 was later found by the Court of Appeal to be \u201cmanifestly excessive\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ProtestersProtesters are supporting the pro-Palestine activists convicted of criminal damage [Simon Speakman Cordall\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n

Huda Ammori, Palestine Action cofounder, has called Altham\u2019s involvement in the case \u201cshocking\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the rights group Defend our Juries, more than 3,500 people \u2013 many over the age of 60 \u2013 have been arrested for expressing support for Palestine Action after it was proscribed by politicians in July 2025, placing it on the same legal footing as al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).<\/p>\n

Many of these arrests have arisen through repeated mass sit-ins in central London\u2019s Parliament Square, where protesters held signs reading, \u201cI oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, people gathered outside Preston Crown Court \u201cto show solidarity with the \u2018Barclays 5\u2019, who Judge Parry moves to sentence as terrorists for spray-painting a bank,\u201d Defend our Juries said. \u201cThis is despite them facing no terrorism charges, and the jury and the defendants being unaware of potential terrorist sentencing during trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeking to prevent the loss of life is not terrorism. Opposing genocide is not terrorism,\u201d the group added.<\/p>\n

Among them was Malik\u2019s mother, Dove Malik.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I am the proudest mum in the world right now,\u201d she told Al Jazeera, adding that her son has previously supported Palestinians by fundraising, campaigning and supporting local Palestinians in his neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have brought him up \u2026 to be a good person, to always think of other people first, to work hard to create a better world, to create a better future for future generations, and that has lived with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople are protesting in Preston outside the court in support of the five activists [Simon Speakman Cordall]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Preston, United Kingdom \u2013 Five Palestine Action activists in the United Kingdom are set to hear whether terrorism-linked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21264],"tags":[3343,141,252,41,18,250,6],"class_list":["post-108100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barclays","tag-barclays","tag-courts","tag-europe","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-news","tag-protests","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117133238951448343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}