Barrister’s Powerful Speech At Filton Trial
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Jury nullification
14 min read
The core of Menon's argument is that juries have the power to acquit defendants even when the law appears to require conviction. This concept of jury nullification—where juries judge both the facts and the law itself—is central to understanding the legal strategy being employed.
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Elbit Systems
16 min read
The article centers on activists who broke into an Elbit Systems factory. Understanding this Israeli defense electronics company, its products, and its role in military technology provides essential context for the defendants' claimed 'lawful excuse' defense.
Starmer and the media need convictions to justify Palestine Action’s proscription as a terrorist group. Rajiv Menon KC spells out to the jury why it is a vital last defence against government tyranny.
My thanks to Craig Murray, former UK ambassador turned whistleblower, for alerting me to what he rightly calls “one of the greatest legal speeches—including historical speeches—I have ever read”. It is that indeed.
It was made by Rajiv Menon KC and is addressed to the jury in the current “Filton Trial” at Woolwich Crown Court. There, six Palestine Action-linked activists are being prosecuted over a break-in in August 2024 at a Bristol factory owned by Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems. The six used sledgehammers to smash killer-drones that were being built at the factory and sent to Israel for use in the Gaza genocide.
At the time of the break-in, Palestine Action was a legal organisation. Nearly a year later, the government of Keir Starmer declared it a terrorist group—the first time in British history that a non-violent direct action organisation has been proscribed.
The defendants, like other Palestine Action activists held on remand, have been treated as terrorists—with special, inhumane restrictions on them in prison—even though none is charged with a terrorism offence. That is the background to a prolonged hunger strike by three other activists—not those currently on trial—which is putting their lives in imminent danger.
The Filton Trial is being exploited for political ends by Starmer’s government, which is actively complicit in Israel’s genocide, as well as the establishment British media, which has sought to obscure the criminal nature of Israel’s actions. Both hope to use any guilty verdict as justification for Palestine Action’s proscription as a terrorist organisation.
As Murray points out, a separate High Court panel reviewing the legality of the government’s proscription decision has so far delayed its ruling. It is likely to be waiting for the Filton Trial to complete so it can seize on any guilty verdict to side with the government.
All will be pinning their hopes on whether one of the defendants, Samuel Corner, is convicted of injuring a policewoman during a tussle over one of the sledgehammers that was being used to smash Elbit’s drones.
The goal has been to suggest that this incident was both intentional and indicative of a supposed, secret terrorist agenda by Palestine
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