Israel Matzav

English judge acquits anti-Israel factory vandals

A British judge has acquitted seven criminals who broke into and vandalized a factory on the grounds that the factory sold military equipment to Israel and the vandals claimed that they were trying to prevent Israeli 'war crimes.'

Although they admitted to a crime causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage that would ordinarily carry a heavy sentence, the judge, George Bathurst-Norman, reportedly sent the jury off to deliberate with the following words, "You may well think that hell on earth would not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered in that time."

I don't know whether Britain has a procedure to remove judges, nor what that procedure is, but this guy should certainly be subject to it.

More comments here and here.

Maybe that explains why no one bothered to call the police to this crime scene until it was too late. No one would have been convicted of the vandalism anyway.

UPDATE 10:34 PM

Here's a description of what these people did.

A group of activists who broke into an arms factory near Brighton last year and caused damage costing around £180,000 ($275,000) were found not guilty last week of causing criminal damage.

In a lawsuit filed in October, seven British activists claimed they were legally justified to break in and sabotage the factory of EDO MBM Technology near Brighton, on the south coast of England, in January 2009, at the time of Operation Cast Lead.

Believing that the company was violating export license regulations and sending arms components to Israel, the activists, from a group called Smash EDO, said they wanted to “slow down” the manufacture of components that were allegedly being sold to the Jewish state.

The protesters threw computers and file cabinets out of the factory windows and smashed machinery using hammers, claiming they were seeking to prevent “Israeli war crimes in Gaza.”

The seven admitted breaking in and causing the damage but were acquitted when the jury found them not guilty of conspiring to cause criminal damage, despite video-taped interviews of the activists that outlined their intention to cause criminal damage and “smash up” the factory.

The activists used the “lawful excuse” defense – committing an offense to prevent what they say was a more serious crime because EDO was “complicit in war crimes.”

Judge George Bathurst-Norman told the jury: “You may well think that hell on earth would not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered in that time.”

EDO managing director Paul Hills denied in court that the company supplied components to Israel but said it did make parts for F-16 fighter planes.

Judge George Bathurst-Norman said that, despite Hill’s denials, it was clear that there was enough evidence to the contrary and that the certificates required for arms export licenses were “not worth the paper they are written on,” as they can be easily manipulated.

According to The Guardian, the judge highlighted the testimony by Green Party MP and anti-Israel activist Caroline Lucas, who had tried to justify the action by saying, “All democratic paths had been exhausted and, crucially, that their actions were driven by the responsibility to prevent further suffering in Gaza.”

Read the whole thing. It's sickening.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:35 PM