Four young people—Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, and Fatema Rajwani—were sentenced as terrorists this week for the crime of criminal damage. They broke into an Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol, and caused approximately £1.2 million worth of damage. They livestreamed the whole thing wearing their, now iconic, red jumpsuits and they acted in the open.
A jury of their peers, that is, Brits, convicted them of criminal damage. Not terrorism or any kind of violent disorder. Simple criminal damage.
But here is where the really nightmarish situation begins. The judge, Mr Justice Johnson, had already decided that he would add a ‘terrorist connection’ to their sentences. He did this secretly, before the verdict and the jury was never told this was being considered. The defence was never given the opportunity to address it. The conviction came down on criminal damage charges. And then the judge, alone, unilaterally, declared that these young people are terrorists. Image
I did my research and found out this has never happened before in British legal history. Direct action protesters have never been treated this way. Criminal damage has never been considered a terrorist offence. The barrister for the defence, Rajiv Menon KC, called it ‘chilling and creeping authoritarianism’.
He is not wrong.
They got sentenced to about five years each, except for the guy who hurt a police officer and got two years more. That on its face does not seem unreasonable to me for causing over a million pounds in damage even without any sort of terrorist connection. How long are people in Britain responsible for hundreds of thousands of pounds in damage each usually sentenced for, given that this sentence is so outrageous to the author?
The sentence length is not the problem here. The problem is that the judge has established legal precedent for “upgrading” a crime to terrorism. Secretly at that, without informing the defense or jury.
So now any crime can get you punished under terrorism statutes at the judge’s discretion and the judge can announce that after the jury has delivered a verdict. That’s not how a justice system should work.
I hope that the defense will move for a mistrial and win. Not that I think the perpetrators should walk free; they certainly seem to be guilty. But they should be convicted under the correct statutes for their crimes.
It’s not the length of the sentence that matters, it’s what a Terrorism charge does to you upon release. They may only get 5 years in a cell, but this is effectively a life sentence.
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Listen… what happened on my juvenile record was sealed… 😜
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