The three female activists arrested on Tuesday for the direct action against the Leonardo weapons factory in Edinburgh are being treated as terrorists. They have been held now for 40 hours, without either being charged or being brought before a judge, under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act.
They are from the organisation Shut Down Leonaproprdo, which targets the firm which makes parts for the F-35 jets that massacre children in Gaza.
I spent all yesterday trying to organise their legal defence. By 8am I had found the right solicitor and briefed them on the case, including the crucial judgment by Judge Chamberlain in London’s High Court on 4 July.
Chamberlain’s judgment stated explicitly that future direct action protest, even where allegedly criminal, would not be aggravated to terrorism. It was Palestine Action, not the act of protest, which was proscribed.
But the three women are being held incommunicado in Govan police station, and there is simply no way to get information to them to ask for the solicitor I had briefed. The solicitors themselves went to the police station in Edinburgh and were blanked.
The solicitors were told they would be informed once the police knew what was happening. The police never got back to them, and did not even tell them the women had been moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow.
What has almost certainly happened is that the women have been allocated the duty solicitor. This solicitor will not know of Lord Chamberlain’s judgment of 4 July nor any of the background.
Equally crucially, it is extremely improbable that the duty solicitor would sit alongside the women during 48 long hours of interrogation. Frequently those arrested never see the duty solicitor at all, and just get a brief telephone consultation.
Once the duty solicitor has been assigned, another solicitor cannot get access, except at the direct request of those arrested. Who are held incommunicado.
This is crucial, because today they have to be brought before a judge – which will almost certainly be in Court 3 in Edinburgh Sheriff Court in Chambers St. They will very likely be charged with terrorism. That means they will almost certainly not get bail, and could disappear into prison on remand for well over a year.
AMENDMENT – I have since been advised by lawyers that the detention has to be extended today by judicial warrant, but under the Terrorism Act this can be done by a judge in secret without the girls being brought to court. They can still be kept in the cells in Govan.
But terrorism is an incompetent charge, following Chamberlain’s High Court ruling. That was under a fortnight ago and this is the first case. It is very probable that the judge, solicitor and procurator do not know that aspect of the ruling, and there is at the moment no means to put it before the court.
This should be treated as a case of criminal damage – from which many activists have been acquitted by juries – as stopping genocide is seen as ethically more important than very minor damage to a fence.
This photo of the “terrorism” in question makes abundantly plain that Starmer and Cooper are acting as fascists. Nobody could argue in good faith that these women are committing “terrorism”.
If properly charged, there is no sensible reason why the women should not be granted bail.
Everything Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh and Raza Husain stated would happen following the proscription of Palestine Action – for which they were pooh-poohed by Judge Chamberlain – is happening. As given above, Chamberlain stated that:
some of the consequences feared by the claimant and others who have given evidence are overstated.
But he specifically then states that direct action will not be aggravated to terrorism; yet here we have those engaged in the very first direct action after his proscription, being treated as terrorists.
Furthermore the proscription of Palestine Action is indeed causing the police to treat simple criticism of Israel as illegal, again directly contrary to Chamberlain’s judgment.
This video shows Kent police threatening to arrest a protester under the Terrorism Act – leaving them facing up to 14 years in jail – simply for waving a Palestinian flag and calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide.
The direction of travel under Starmer is now clear. pic.twitter.com/qKz23CCtPq
— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) July 16, 2025
Now, it does not matter whether the police follow through with these threats against free speech. The very fact they are making such threats – and are widely disseminated on social media making such threats – will have a severe chilling effect on many people’s right of free expression.
There is also a great deal of “concern trolling” in progress from fake left outfits like Novara Media, telling people to suppress protest in case they are prosecuted.
Today I am going to resume my efforts to get the Leonardo Three a proper defence.
On 21 July, Judge Chamberlain hears the case for a judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action. We will then learn, given the now-unequivocal evidence of the chilling effect on free speech, whether his denial that the proscription would chill free speech and protest, was due to a Panglossian view of our police and prosecutors, or a malevolent and disingenuous device to enforce the proscription.
UPDATE 2 It appears they currently have no legal representation and the police refuse to inform the women of the lawyers arranged for them. This is an outrage. The parents of one have also been told they have now been taken from Govan police station, but will not say to where.
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Boo to Genocide.’ Thats enough sir, you’ nicked
The death of freedom of speech in the UK. Disgusting.
Craig, could you write up the relevant aspects of the Chamberlain ruling as a guide for activists who have been arrested? Are they within their rights to refuse a duty solicitor and request representation from chamers that are well informed? e,g, Bindmans? To subvert this happening in future?
Could someone certify I’m not going mad.
I note that several protesters have been arrested for holding up signs “Genocide in Palestine time to take Action.”
Now I have listened to speeches in Parliament and numerous MP’s have implored the government to take action on Palestine. The protesters are saying exactly what the MP’s are saying. What else is a crime?
The pigs have a history of nicking people at protests on the thinnest of pretexts to Deter, Disrupt and Dissuade*, leaving it to the courts to free people after the event. The only thing that’s changed now is the “terrorism” BS and the greater leeway that allows for sleep deprivation and interrogation. To be clear, I believe that the police actions are wilful and no accident. (No wonder Zionists were keen to get Palestine Action proscribed.)
* Wikileaks revealed a list of “D” words used by JTRIG and other arms of the British state for psyops.
Lets say there was a group called “Drive Safely” Due to over enthusiastic protest they were “proscribed” Now anyone advocating for Driving Safely would be arrested and called a terrorist. You just can’t label any group called “Palestine Action” as terrorist. You don’t need a Ph.D. to figure that out.
Apparently saying “Death to the IDF” in public is now a “racially aggravated public order offence”.
I wonder if the same would hold true if we said Death to Nazis or the Iranian Republican Guard???
When the means to protest is silenced then there are limited ways that a noise may be made that is loud enough to wake those sleepwalking into tyranny. What did Mao say about change, when the peaceful ways of protest are limited in fact silenced then it is time to worry that other means for dissent becomes attractive to those that can’t wait for a change that seemingly won’t come.
I worry that the unreconstructed Stalinists of the New Labour political class are too stupid to realise, but then again. Stammer needs to be reminded of why those rough working class boys gave him and his Young Labour Chums a booting back to their Hotels and Hostels At their Llandudno Conference in the 1980s. I was impressed that for many decades old rivalries were set aside to give the rude arrogant Young Labour pillocks the good arse booting they deserved.
Bank accounts closed in addition to multiple police forces making arrests. Like I wrote, this is no accident but a concerted campaign:
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/two-uk-pro-palestine-organisations-130054974.html
Thanks Craig for continuing to struggle against the authorities hell bent on damping down opposition against the violent genocidal tsunami engulfing Palestinians in the middle east. I was heartened today to learn about the Jewish anti Zionist conference in Vienna, as reported in Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/07/scenes-from-the-end-of-zionism-reflections-on-the-jewish-anti-zionist-congress-in-vienna/ which reported in part:
“The voice of Palestinians, crucially, was heard there too, through the presence of people such as Gazan journalist and author Ramzy Baroud, who argued that his people should become a model of resistance against imperialism worldwide. Palestinian physician, academic, and writer Dr. Ghada Karmi was there to emphasize the right of return and Europe’s role in having “created the monster” that is Israel, as was politician Awad Abdelfatah, who has worked from within the Israeli political system, advocating for one, democratic state with equal rights for all who live in it.”
Which reminds us of the kind of desperation our government must be in to embark on resorting to the kind of repressive legislation it has enacted and which will surely come back to bite them on the arse.
Not sure why anyone is shocked. The left have been crushing freedoms for decades. Any other party has to join in for any hope the will be the puppets in power.
Uniparty nwo. Enjoy society while you still can. Won’t be much longer now.
Proscribing Hamas or Hezbollah as terrorist is an invitation and encouragement for Israel to kill anyone in anyway associated. So step one to stop the killing is to deproscribe. I don’t hear much on that score so it just shows how thoroughly Israel has hypnotized even the most ardent antiwar activists.