Two supporters of the direct-action group Palestine Action breached security at RAF Brize Norton, Britain’s largest air base, in the early hours of 20 June. Travelling on electric scooters, they used crowbars and sprayed red paint into the engines of two Airbus A330 Voyager refuelling aircraft, causing an estimated £7 million in damage, according to the Ministry of Defence and counter-terrorism police.
Counter Terrorism Policing South East later arrested four suspects in connection with the incident. On 2–3 July, Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 35, Jony Cink, 24, and Lewie Chiaramello, 22, were charged at Westminster Magistrates’ Court with conspiracy to commit criminal damage and to enter a prohibited place. Prosecutors said they would ask the court to treat the offences as having a terrorist connection; the defendants were remanded in custody ahead of a plea hearing scheduled for 18 July.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper cited the Brize Norton sabotage and what she called the group’s “long history of unacceptable criminal damage” when she moved on 23 June to proscribe Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000. The House of Commons endorsed the order by 385 votes to 26, the House of Lords gave its approval the next day, and the ban took effect at midnight on 5 July after the High Court and Court of Appeal rejected the activists’ bid for interim relief. Membership of, or public support for, the group now carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
Within hours of the proscription, the Metropolitan Police arrested more than 20 demonstrators in Parliament Square on suspicion of terrorism-related offences for displaying placards backing Palestine Action. The group’s co-founder Huda Ammori has secured a further High Court hearing on 21 July to seek a judicial review of the ban, which civil-liberties groups warn could have a chilling effect on protest in the United Kingdom.
Police in London have arrested an 83-year-old woman for holding a sign expressing support for Palestine Action, the activist group was recently proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000.
After the decision to ban it.. Palestine Action: The British government is subject to an Israeli lobby and we will not stop supporting Palestine
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Palestine Action supporters CUFFED in London
Hours after group officially branded TERRORIST org in UK
London Met. Police reminder that 'expressing support for them is a criminal offence'
UPDATE: Cops say 20+ arrests made at protest
