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Six Palestine Action activists have been cleared of aggravated burglary over a break-in at an Israeli-linked defence firm's UK site after a jury was unable to reach a verdict on criminal damage charges.
The members of the group were accused of using a prison van as a "battering ram" to get inside the Elbit Systems UK factory in Bristol in the early hours of August 6, 2024.
Prosecutors said the activists wore red boiler suits as they carried out a "meticulously organised" attack, which saw them allegedly break computer equipment and boxes of technical products using crowbars and hammers.
They were also accused of spraying red paint from fire extinguishers and smashing up the disabled toilet.
But Samuel Corner, 23, Charlotte Head, 29, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, were found not guilty of aggravated burglary after a jury at Woolwich Crown Court failed to reach a verdict.
All six defendants had denied charges of criminal damage and violent disorder.
Following the trial, the jury deliberated for more than 36 hours on the criminal damage charge, but could not reach a verdict.
Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin were found not guilty of violent disorder, while verdicts were not reached for the three others.
The jury also failed to reach a verdict on an additional charge of causing grievous bodily harm against Corner.
The Oxford graduate had been accused of allegedly striking Police Sergeant Kate Evans on the back with a sledgehammer while she was on the floor, leaving her with a fracture to her lumbar spine.
Upon hearing the verdict, all six defendants hugged in the dock and waved to supporters in the public gallery, who cheered loudly at the result.
Jurors were told at the start of the trial that the allegations came before Palestine Action's proscription under terrorism laws last year, and the ban was not relevant to the case.
Prosecutors are now considering whether to seek a retrial on the remaining charges.
Elbit Systems UK manufactures defence technology equipment and is a UK-registered company whose parent company is based in Israel, the court was told.
All of the defendants, apart from Devlin, gave evidence and admitted they had entered Elbit's factory without permission and damaged property, including drones and computers.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said "rightly or wrongly", they all "genuinely believed the attack on Elbit" would help the Palestinian cause in Gaza.
Jurors were shown body-worn camera footage which prosecutors said showed security guards being sworn at, sledgehammers swung at them and whipped.
One was sprayed with a foam fire extinguisher, Mr Heer said.
Corner was said to have struck Sgt Evans in the back with a sledgehammer as she was kneeling down trying to arrest another suspect.
The defendants told the court the sledgehammers were not "in any circumstances intended to injure security staff" and denied any intention to use violence.
Head's barrister Rajiv Menon KC compared the group to the suffragettes, who were accused of being "a threat to the social order" and "unladylike, feral, aggressive, violent", by MPs and in the mainstream press at the time.
Corner's lawyers said he "genuinely thought" that Kamio or Rogers was being seriously injured.
