LONDON: Four Palestine Action activists were due in court Thursday over a break-in at a UK air force base that has provoked Britain’s government to move to ban the protest group.
Two aircraft in southern England were sprayed with red paint last week, causing an estimated £7 million ($9.55 million) in damages and prompting the government to seek lawmakers’ approval for a ban.
The group has condemned the move as an “unhinged reaction” and is challenging its planned proscription, as the British government said it could be banned by the end of the week.
Counter-terror police on Wednesday charged the four suspects with “conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.”
Prosecutors will argue the offences were terror-linked.
Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 35, Jony Cink, 24, and Lewie Chiaramello, 22, were remanded in custody to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
A 41-year-old woman who was arrested “on suspicion of assisting an offender” has been released on bail.
The proposed ban on Palestine Action would make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Announcing the clamp-down, interior minister Yvette Cooper listed other attacks by Palestine Action at the Thales defence factory in Glasgow in 2022, and two last year against Instro Precision in Kent, southeast England, and Israel-based Elbit Systems in Bristol, in the country’s southwest.
An urgent hearing to challenge the proscription will be held at the High Court in London on Friday.
The challenge was backed by Amnesty International and other rights groups.
