Wales holds 4 pro-Palestinian vandals without bail for targeting defense facility
Activists to be in jail through Christmas and New Year’s after allegedly causing £500,000 in damage to Teledyne factory, which they claim aids ‘Israel’s targeting of Palestinians’
Four pro-Palestinian activists have been arrested and charged after breaking in and vandalizing a factory in rural Wales.
The activists were associated with the group Palestine Action, which claims that the Teledyne Labtech factory in Presteigne, Wales, manufactures “military radars for Israel’s high precision targeting of Palestinians.”
Identified in local media as Susan Bagshaw, 65; Morwenna Grey, 41; Ruth Hogg, 39; and Tristan Dixon, 34, the four activists were remanded into custody without bail on Monday and will next appear before the court on January 6 — meaning they will spend Christmas and New Year’s behind bars.
According to the BBC, the individuals are suspected of causing more than £500,000 in damage to the facility. The activists came armed with hammers, smoke bombs, an angle grinder and a fire extinguisher containing red paint, a Welsh prosecutor told the Welshpool Magistrates’ Court, as reported by The Hereford Times.
Arriving at the factory on Friday, the vandals broke more than 25 windows as well as computers and monitors and other machinery, after using the angle grinder to cut through the roof, prosecutors said. They also threw red paint all over the exterior of the factory.
Palestine Action claimed that the court decision to hold the four individuals without bail “shows the desperation of the British state to protect Israeli weapons.”
After breaking into the factory, the group said it vowed “to continue this action for as long as possible to stop the manufacture or shipment of Israel’s drone technologies and military gear.”
The four activists were charged with conspiracy to commit criminal damage and conspiracy to commit burglary.
In a statement from the US-owned defense company Teledyne cited by the BBC, the company said, “We deplore any criminal damage to our sites. Fortunately none of our employees or neighbors were injured. We are cooperating with local and UK-wide law enforcement agencies.”
