(C) OpenDemocracy This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Palestine Action activists who shut down Elbit factory could face fresh trial [1] [] Date: 2024-02 Six Palestine Action activists find out tomorrow whether they will face a fresh trial over the shutdown of an Israeli-linked arms factory. Jurors at Snaresbrook Crown Court acquitted the group of a total of nine charges in December, but failed to reach a decision on 23 others. They were accused of criminal offences relating to direct action targeting the UK operations of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company. Genevieve Scherer and Jocelyn Cooney were acquitted in December for all of the offences they had been charged with. Richard Barnard, co-founder of Palestine Action, was found guilty of one count of criminal damage. The jury failed to reach a decision on a majority of the other charges. The group, originally known as the ‘Elbit Eight’ – now the ‘Elbit Six’ – had been on trial at the end of last year for various combinations of 13 counts relating to a series of protests in London, Kent, Oldham and Staffordshire. They will find out on Thursday whether the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) intends to repeat the trial in the hope of getting a verdict for the remaining counts. What do you think? Win a £10 book voucher for sharing your views about openDemocracy. Tell us Lydia Dagostino, the group’s solicitor and director at Kellys Solicitors, pointed to the backlog in British courts as a likely cause of further delays should a fresh trial go ahead. “We’re looking at probably spring or summer 2025 [if there is a retrial],” she said. “Some of these incidents date back to 2020, so that’s five years. Broadly speaking, the retrial isn’t really a priority [for the court], but it has a massive impact on defendants and witnesses.” Milly Arnott, who stood trial with the group last year, added: “I did these direct actions when I had just turned 27. I’m now 30. By the time I get to my retrial, I will be nearly 32. I never anticipated just how long I would be wound up in this whole legal process when I was first arrested. “It’s another form of punishment for defendants – the pre-trial punishment of waiting around, the psychological burden of not knowing what’s going to happen.” She said the long wait was a result of “over a decade of austerity-led cuts across all of the public sector including the courts”. The Ministry of Justice, responsible for the court system, has been hit hard by cuts to its departmental budget. Last year, the president of the Law Society, Nick Emmerson, said the justice system was “crying out for investment” as he warned against further cuts amid a growing backlog of cases. Arnott described the wait for a potential retrial as a “form of psychological warfare on defendants, because it’s another year and a half where we can’t progress with our life – you can’t make long-term decisions, or get jobs. The consequences go way beyond just waiting for this trial.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/palestine-action-protest-trial-elbit-six-retrial-court-snaresbrook/ Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/