Reporting restrictions prevent the publication of anything discussed or decided in the court on Thursday, but we can report that the protest outside was audible all day within the courtroom.
Hundreds attended a protest outside the Old Bailey on Thursday in support of 18 Palestine Action activists who are currently on remand accused under various charges as a result of an action at the Bristol (Filton) research facility of Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.
The action, which took place in August 2023, is claimed to have caused around a million pounds worth of destruction including damage to quadcopter drones which may have been otherwise shipped for use in Gaza.
The eighteen defendants (some of whom were arrested in raids later) were initially held under counter-terrorism powers for much longer than is usual for criminal arrests, and are all now imprisoned on remand, with any actual trial unlikely for many months and possibly a more than a year away.
