The Filton 6 have been acquitted, with a jury finding them not guilty on the most significant counts, and failing to reach a verdict on others.
The BBC initially reported the news with the headline "Palestine Action group cleared of Elbit burglary" before amending it to the more establishment-friendly "Palestine Action protesters await potential retrial".
This case was held up by those supporting the proscription of Palestine Action and the holding of Gaza protesters on remand as proof of the violent nature of the group, as they had "broken a policewoman's back."
Yet the jury declined to convict, suggesting this wasn't the case, but more sympathetic outlets are reporting that footage not only appeared suspiciously edited, but still manages to show the security guards assaulting the protesters with a sledgehammer.
Two other shocking elements of the case:
While the jury was in retirement, the court heard posters had been put up on bus stops and lampposts near the building which said: "The jury decide not the judge," "Jury equity is when a jury acquits someone on moral grounds," and: "Jurors can give a not guilty verdict even when they believe a defendant has broken the law."
The prosecution said it was aware of the signs, which set out the principle of "jury equity" – the capacity of a jury to return a verdict according to conscience. They said police officers had been taking the posters down but they kept reappearing.
The judge advised the jury to avoid being "influenced by anything that happens outside court" and to return true verdicts based on the evidence given in court.
These posters merely state the facts. Jury nullification is a consequence of the law as it is written, and to deny it is to deny the law.
The judge also prevented the defendants from making the key argument of the case: That they were not breaking any laws because they sought to prevent genocide.
This is a correct argument according to the precedent established by the Seeds of Hope case in 1996.
Accused of causing, and conspiring to cause, criminal damage, with a maximum ten-year sentence, they pleaded not guilty arguing that what they did was not a crime but that they "were acting to prevent British Aerospace and the British Government from aiding and abetting genocide", referring to the genocide taking place in East Timor. They were found not guilty of criminal damage at Liverpool Crown Court, after a jury deemed their action reasonable under the Genocide Act 1969.
(I notice that the wikipedia article links this paragraph to the page on jury nullification, but I don't think this was a case of jury nullification. The jury did not decide that the law was wrong and should not be enforced; they decided that the law itself provided a lawful excuse under the Genocide Act.)
Asa Winstanley reports for Electronic Intifada:
At the end of the evidence, the judge told the jury that the “situation in the Middle East” and Elbit’s operations are “not relevant” to the case and directed the jury to “follow the legal directions I’ve given you and not anything else.”
[...]
During the trial, a juror asked whether they were allowed to acquit because the defendants genuinely believed that they were destroying weapons to prevent their use in genocide.
The judge’s response was “no.”
We know for a fact that the jury are allowed to do so. The jury in the 1996 case did so. There is a good chance the jury went on to do it here, despite the judge lying to their face.
And in spite of the verdict being correct in this case it's hard (between the judge deceiving the jury with impunity, and the government seeking to undermine the very right to trial by jury) to look at it and come away with any faith in the system of British justice.
Gaza continues to be the factor which lays bare the brazen dishonesty and corruption of the establishment, from biased judges, to authoritarian politicians, to mendacious reporters, all shameless in their alignment with the genocidal Israeli state and every grubby little racist spreading lies about how the hunger strikers are only fasting every other day.