Not guilty: It really is no crime to stop Israeli war crimes
Congratulations to the EDO decommissioners who, instead of facing jail sentences, have been found not guilty of sabataging a factory supplying arms to Israel, the jury accepting their justification that they were preventing war crimes in Gaza.
By Robin Beste
Stop the War Coalition
01 July 2010
Why the anti-war activists decommissioned the EDO factory
Five activists who caused £180,000 damage to an arms factory were acquitted after they argued they were seeking to prevent Israeli war crimes.
On 17 January 2009, as Israel's bombs and missiles rained down on the people of Gaza, killing over 1400 people, anti war activists staged a citizens' decommissioning at the ITT/EDO MBM factory in Brighton. ITT/EDO MBM make vital components for Paveway precision guided bombs and Hellfire missiles, and bomb release clips for F15 and F16 fighter aircraft.The decommissioners were trying to stop the supply of weapons used for war crimes. They made their way to the top storey and threw computers and filing cabinets out of the building.
The words "War Criminals" were written on the walls. The disarming of the factory successfully brought the business to a standstill and caused a temporary halt to this section of the war machine.
Elijah Smith stated before entering the factory "I don't feel I'm going to do anything illegal tonight. I'm going to smash this arms factory so that it cannot actually work to produce parts for the bombs that are provided to the Israeli army which is killing children. The time for talking has gone."
Tom Woodhead, another decommissioner, said "Prison does not worry me. What does scares me is the international community's lack of ability to act in the prevention of grave war crimes".
Following the precedent set by the Raytheon 9, who were found not guilty at their trial in 2008 for carrying out a similar action in the Raytheon offices in Derry, the decommissioners went to trial as the accusers not the accused.
And on 30 June 2010 they were completely vindicated after a jury found them not guilty of conspiring to cause criminal damage to the factory.
The jury accespted the Decommissioners justification that EDO MBM, the firm that owns the factory, was breaking export regulations by manufacturing and selling to the Israelis military equipment which would be used in the occupied territories. They wanted to slow down the manufacture of these components, and impede what they believed were war crimes being committed by Israel against the Palestinians.
After being acquitted, one of them, Robert Nicholls, told the Guardian: "I'm joyful really, at being a free man. The action was impulsive really, we just wanted to do something that would make a real difference to the people of Palestine."
Another, Ornella Saibene, said: "I've felt very peaceful all the way through the trial because I'm proud of what I've done. It was the right thing to do."
They are the latest group of peace and climate-change activists to successfully use the "lawful excuse" defence – committing an offence to prevent a more serious crime – as a tactic in their campaigns. The acquitted are Nicholls, 52, Tom Woodhead, 25, Harvey Tadman, 44, Ornella Saibene, 50, all from Bristol, and Simon Levin, 35, from Brighton. They had decided to act last January after three weeks of Israeli military manoeuvres against Gaza in which many Palestinians were killed. According to a UN investigation by former South African judge Richard Goldstone, Israel committed war crimes by deliberately attacking civilians during the offensive known as Operation Cast Lead.
In his summing up, Judge George Bathurst-Norman suggested to the jury that "you may well think that hell on earth would not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered in that time".
The judge highlighted the testimony by Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, that "all democratic paths had been exhausted" before the activists embarked on their action.
Hove crown court heard the activists had broken into the factory in the night. They had video-taped interviews beforehand outlining their intention to cause damage and, in the words of prosecutor Stephen Shay, "smash-up" the factory.
These statements were posted on the Indymedia website shortly after they were arrested. Dexter Dias, barrister for one of the defendants, accused Paul Hills, EDO MBM's managing director, of lying in the witness box when he said his company did not supply components which were being used by the Israeli military.
