{"id":57696,"date":"2026-08-28T19:09:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/57696\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T19:09:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:09:19","slug":"scottish-prosecutors-allege-terrorist-connection-over-trump-golf-course-protest-as-juries-throw-out-terror-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/57696\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish prosecutors allege “terrorist connection” over Trump golf course protest, as juries throw out terror cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

An indictment released by the Scottish courts service this week reveals that seven people charged over a pro-Palestinian protest at Donald Trump\u2019s Turnberry golf resort in Ayrshire are accused of an offence \u201caggravated by reason of having a terrorist connection\u201d.<\/p>\n

Seven people are charged over the March 8, 2025 action: Kieran Robson (aged 35); Uzma Bashir (56); Ricky Southall (34); Autumn Taylor Ward (22); Rebecca Sian Davies (29); John Moxley (58); and Dylan Chiaramello (24).<\/p>\n

Their first appearance at the High Court in Glasgow, due on August 31, was adjourned to October. Robson, Bashir and Davies face an additional charge of attempting to \u201cdefeat the ends of justice\u201d, with prosecutors alleging that they drove to and from the resort on false registration plates.<\/p>\n

The 16-page indictment describes damage to a luxury golf course where non-residents pay up to \u00a31,000 a round. The accused, it states, \u201cdid maliciously damage property there in that you did maliciously dig up turf on the golf course, spray glyphosate [weed killer] or similar substance on the fairways and greens, spray a building and signpost with paint, paint political and offensive slogans on the grass, score a political slogan into the turf, paint political and offensive slogans on a building, walls and pillars, damage a sprinkler system causing flooding, and damage a light\u201d.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump, right, and Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrive at Trump International Golf Links, near Aberdeen, Scotland, Monday, July 28, 2025. [AP Photo]<\/p>\n

The \u201cpolitical and offensive slogans\u201d were \u201cFree Gaza\u201d, \u201cFree Palestine\u201d and \u201cGaza is not 4 sale\u201d\u2014a reference to Trump\u2019s plan to expel the Palestinian population and redevelop Gaza as a \u201criviera\u201d resort. No terrorism offence has been formally charged. The Crown is attaching a terrorism aggravation to a charge of malicious mischief, permitting far longer sentences for what is, on the prosecution\u2019s own account, the spraying of paint and weedkiller.<\/p>\n

The timeline demonstrates a conspiracy at the highest levels of the Trump administration and Britain\u2019s Labour government to label political protest \u201cterrorism\u201d. Within weeks of the action, Trump branded those responsible \u201cterrorists\u201d who should be \u201ctreated harshly\u201d. On March 13, 2025, Scottish First Minister John Swinney met Trump\u2019s son Eric and, the official note records, \u201coffered reassurance that the relevant authorities would continue to take the incident seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n

As the World Socialist Web Site reported<\/a> in August 2025, evidence had already emerged by then that the proscription of Palestine Action (PA) the previous month was a central demand of the Trump administration. <\/p>\n

Declassified UK\u2018s John McEvoy sought the minutes of the then Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s calls with Trump on March 11 and March 30, 2025 and \u201call references to Palestine Action in both phone calls\u201d. The Cabinet Office released nothing, admitting it \u201cholds information of relevance\u201d while claiming an exemption on national security grounds.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

On August 26 this year, two days before the Turnberry indictment appeared, the US Treasury designated Palestine Action a terrorist organisation, froze its US-controlled assets, and extended sanctions to an international Palestinian solidarity movement Masar Badil (Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement). The same day, the Treasury separately imposed financial penalties on Autistici Inventati, an Italian collective that provides digital services to left-wing groups, including pro-Palestine organisations.<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared, \u201cFar-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: We will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governments in Washington and London share a common agenda of imperialist war abroad and the repression of anti-war, anti-genocide action at home. But they are running up against enormous popular opposition.<\/p>\n

A week before the move to add a terrorism connection in the Turnberry case, another judge refused a request from the prosecution to do so in a case against five Palestine Action activists who vandalised a Barclays bank branch in Burnley in August 2024. More significantly, the assault on democratic rights meeting resistance from juries. <\/p>\n

On August 19, after more than 37 hours of deliberation, the jury in the second Filton trial at the Old Bailey was discharged having failed to reach verdicts on 14 of 15 charges. The eight defendants were accused of helping plan the August 2024 direct action against the Elbit Systems factory near Bristol. One guilty verdict for criminal damage was returned by a nine-to-one majority against a defendant who cannot be named. William Plastow had already been cleared of violent disorder. <\/p>\n

Widespread anti-war sentiment was clear as supporters applauded; the jury foreman reportedly raised his fist as he left court. A hearing on September 14 will decide whether the Crown seeks a retrial.<\/p>\n

All eight defendants were held on remand for up to 18 months, far beyond the six-month custody limit. Teuta Hoxha was one of several Filton detainees\u2014including Kamran Ahmed, Qesser Zuhrah and Heba Muraisi\u2014who went on hunger strike demanding bail and a fair trial. Hoxha\u2019s own strike ran 60 days, from November 2025 into January 2026, before her release on bail that February.<\/p>\n

None of the eight in the second trial were even at the Elbit factory\u2014a key supplier to the Israeli Defense Forces. Instead, prosecutors sought to convict them on joint enterprise powers. Aleksandra Herbich was alleged to have cooked pasta for the group the night before and paid \u00a350 for a campsite. Hannah Davidson was accused of driving Jordan Devlin to a DIY store\u2014Devlin having already been acquitted of any offence connected to Elbit protest.<\/p>\n

The first Filton trial collapsed in February, with the defendants acquitted of aggravated burglary and no verdicts on criminal damage. Only at the May retrial were four convicted. A terrorism connection was then applied by Justice Jeremy Johnson at sentencing in June, producing combined sentences of more than 25 years. The jurors were never told their verdicts would have this result.<\/p>\n

Two days after the second Filton jury was discharged, a jury at Kingston Crown Court took two hours and eleven minutes to unanimously acquit the anti-Zionist writer Tony Greenstein. He had been charged under Section 12(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000 with inviting support for Hamas, a proscribed group. <\/p>\n

The charge rested on three social media posts on October 7, 2023, linking to his blog, in which he wrote of a \u201cGaza ghetto uprising\u201d. Greenstein\u2014whose relatives were murdered at Treblinka and whose father confronted Mosley\u2019s fascists at Cable Street in 1936\u2014faced 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC repeatedly warned him against treating the court as a \u201cpolitical forum\u201d, insisting the jury was \u201cnot concerned with events in the Middle East\u201d. Half the disputed blog post and dozens of his articles attacking Hamas were excluded from evidence.<\/p>\n

In his own closing speech, Greenstein told the jury Britain\u2019s terrorism laws were drafted so broadly they would have criminalised the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The Canary reported that Plaschkes, having floated contempt proceedings, dismissed his address as a rambling speech delivered by an old man. According to the news site, it was the fourth jury acquittal in seven recent Section 12 prosecutions over pro-Palestinian speech.<\/p>\n

Events in the Filton case, along with Greenstein\u2019s, make clear the gulf between mass anti-war sentiment and a state committed to war, austerity and repression. But there can be no complacency; the defence of democratic rights cannot be entrusted to the courts, as the Trump golf course case demonstrates.<\/p>\n

Protest against the proscription of Palestine Action outside the Royal Courts of Justice, June 4, 2025.<\/p>\n

The extent of the ongoing criminalisation of political protest is evidenced in Home Office figures which record a staggering 3,061 terrorism-related arrests in the year to March 2026\u20142,819 of them linked to suspected support for Palestine Action. The average age was 59, against 31 for other terrorism arrests, and most were women.<\/p>\n

The fight against this repression\u2014and the proscription of Palestine Action, terrorism laws and threats to jury trials\u2014demands the independent political mobilisation of the working class against the Labour government, on the basis of a socialist programme.<\/p>\n

Join the fight for socialism! <\/p>\n

Fill out the form to be contacted by someone from the WSWS in your area about getting involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An indictment released by the Scottish courts service this week reveals that seven people charged over a pro-Palestinian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21515,21514,44,21513,11179,4738],"class_list":["post-57696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-elbit","tag-filton-palestine-action-trial","tag-golf","tag-palestine-action","tag-trump","tag-turnberry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}