‘Very unusual’: UK Palestine activists could be sentenced as terrorists

Preston, United Kingdom – Five Palestine Action activists in the United Kingdom are set to hear whether terrorism-linked offences could be included in their sentencing.

Brendon O’Hagan, 28, Amanda Kelly, 31, Hmeera Atiqnisar, 31, Mohammed Malik, 28, and Alma Yaniv, 70, were convicted in June of causing 212,000 pounds ($290,000) in damages during a direct action against a branch of Barclays Bank in the town of Burnley in Lancashire in August 2024. The activists were protesting against the bank’s shareholdings in the Israeli defence company Elbit Systems.

On Friday, Preston Crown Court is expected to determine whether the five activists, who are scheduled to be sentenced on September 4, will face terrorism sentencing.

According to leading criminal lawyer Raj Chada, of the firm Hodge Jones & Allen, which has defended a number of Palestine Action activists, “terrorist connection” laws date back years, but only appear to have been applied recently and solely in Palestine Action cases.

“Certainly, in our experience, using the law like this is very, very unusual and appears to be being used to target Palestine Action activists whose offence predates the banning of the group,” he said.

At the time of their verdicts, Palestine Action had not been proscribed as a terrorist group. Neither the defendants nor the jury were aware that terrorism charges might be involved.

However, following the verdicts, trial judge Philip Parry notified the defendants’ legal team that he intended to consider whether the offence carried a “terrorist connection”. Parry made a similar move after circulating a ruling from a case in June, during which four Palestine Action activists convicted of criminal damage at Elbit Systems’ Filton site near Bristol were sentenced as terrorists nearly two years after their protest at Woolwich Crown Court in London.

“To the best of our knowledge, the only time this law was used in relation to direct action protest groups was against those convicted at Filton,” said Chada, outlining laws used by prosecutors to target the offence rather than the individual or group that had carried it out.

The activists’ supporters have also raised questions about Robert Altham, the judge who will decide whether to add a “terrorist connection” to criminal damage convictions. His previous sentencing of environmental protesters in September 2018 was later found by the Court of Appeal to be “manifestly excessive”.

Huda Ammori, Palestine Action cofounder, has called Altham’s involvement in the case “shocking”.

According to the rights group Defend our Juries, more than 3,500 people – many over the age of 60 – have been arrested for expressing support for Palestine Action after it was proscribed by politicians in July 2025, placing it on the same legal footing as al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).

Many of these arrests have arisen through repeated mass sit-ins in central London’s Parliament Square, where protesters held signs reading, “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”

On Friday, people gathered outside Preston Crown Court “to show solidarity with the ‘Barclays 5’, who Judge Parry moves to sentence as terrorists for spray-painting a bank,” Defend our Juries said. “This is despite them facing no terrorism charges, and the jury and the defendants being unaware of potential terrorist sentencing during trial.

“Seeking to prevent the loss of life is not terrorism. Opposing genocide is not terrorism,” the group added.

Among them was Malik’s mother, Dove Malik.

“I feel like I am the proudest mum in the world right now,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that her son has previously supported Palestinians by fundraising, campaigning and supporting local Palestinians in his neighbourhood.

“I have brought him up … to be a good person, to always think of other people first, to work hard to create a better world, to create a better future for future generations, and that has lived with him.”