The jury in the third trial over the 2024 raid on the Elbit Systems site at Filton, near Bristol, was discharged at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday, 4 November, without reaching a verdict. The Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed that it intends to seek a retrial.

The five defendants — Qesser Zuhrah, Heba Muraisi, Zahra Farooque, Kamran Ahmed and Liam Mullany — deny criminal damage and violent disorder arising from the action at the Elbit Systems UK factory in August 2024. Judge Lees discharged the jury, and an administrative hearing to discuss the next steps in the case has been listed for 18 November at Woolwich. That hearing is not a retrial start date, and the reason the jury was discharged has not been reported. A discharge is neither an acquittal nor a conviction.

Court reporting from the trial recorded that, before Zuhrah gave evidence in the fifth week of the trial, the jury was told of an agreed fact: the account given by security guard Nigel Shaw conflicted with CCTV footage and he was not a reliable witness. Zuhrah, now 21 and 19 at the time of her arrest, told the court she had no intention of using violence against people during the action, and described the group’s aim as stopping weapons from reaching the Israeli military.

The case follows an earlier Filton trial in which four defendants — Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Zainab Rajwani — were sentenced in June after convictions for criminal damage, with the judge finding a terrorist connection under section 69 of the Sentencing Act 2020. Three of the five defendants in the latest trial, Zuhrah, Muraisi and Ahmed, had spent 15 months on remand before being released on bail. The full account of the discharge is set out in Truthaholics’ report.