LONDON: Five members of the banned group Palestine Action will not be sentenced as terrorists for their part in a vandalism incident on a high street bank in the UK.
Brendon O’Hagan, Amanda Kelly, Hmeera Atiqnisar, Mohammed Malik and Alma Yaniv were convicted in June of causing damage to a branch of Barclays Bank in the English town of Burnley, including smashing windows and throwing red paint in August 2024.
Known as the “Barclays five,” they caused around £200,000 ($272,725) of damage in the incident, which they said was in protest of Barclays holding shares in Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.
The jury found them guilty of all charges, but both they and the defendants were unaware that the five could be sentenced as terrorists until after the verdicts were returned.
Following the jury’s decision, Judge Philip Parry told lawyers for the prosecution and defense that he would consider a “terrorist connection” in relation to the offenses.
The five defendants said they should not be sentenced as terrorists as Palestine Action had not been proscribed by the UK government when the offenses were committed.
On Friday, a judge at Preston Crown Court dismissed suggestions that they would be sentenced as terrorists as the case did not meet the legal threshold. They will be sentenced next month.
In a statement, they said they are “extremely relieved that the court has seen sense” but terrorism convictions “should never have been an option,” and the UK government was “attempting to equate property damage to the Israeli war machine with terrorism.”
They added: “A terrorism sentence would not only aggravate our sentence significantly, it would mean we would be imprisoned as terrorists and subject to notification requirements for 15-plus years upon release.
“Those requirements include notifying police of any new address, bank account, phone number, email address, relationship and more. If we failed to do so, even by accident, we would face an additional five years in prison.
“The proscription of Palestine Action, the arrests of over 3,500 people under the Terrorism Act for holding signs and the sentencing of direct action activists as terrorists, are all tools being used by the state to protect the Israeli weapons industry and continue its role in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
“The use of counter-terror powers against direct action for Palestine came after extensive lobbying by the Israeli government, Elbit Systems, pro-Israel lobby groups and politicians with vested interests.”
