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A Palestine Action activist who was acquitted over a protest at an Israeli arms manufacturer’s UK site has said he and his five co-defendants “did the right thing”.

Four of those who stood trial with Jordan Devlin were convicted of criminal damage in relation to the direct action protest at the Elbit Systems UK site near Bristol on 6 August 2024, but he said they had been acting to save Palestinian lives.

The 31-year-old from County Antrim, Northern Ireland described smashing up equipment including drones as a “fantastic feeling”. He said: “I don’t regret signing up to this action because I’m very acutely aware I was quantifiably saving lives. We know we did the right thing by signing up to this.”

Devlin and Zoe Rogers, 22, were both cleared at Woolwich crown court of criminal damage but Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, were convicted.

Devlin is struggling to understand the different verdicts but believes missing CCTV footage from the factory “didn’t help the prosecution, even though we both said we [destroyed property]”. For example, there was no CCTV footage of an incident in which a security guard, Angelo Volante, appeared to strike Devlin across the neck with the handle of a sledgehammer, but it was shown in court because it was captured on a police body-worn camera.

Tuesday’s verdicts came after a retrial. Devlin and his co-defendants, except Corner, were bailed in February after 18 months in prison awaiting trial when a jury cleared them all of aggravated burglary, acquitted Devlin, Rogers and Rajwani of violent disorder and failed to reach a verdicts on criminal damage charges and an allegation that Corner had inflicted grievous bodily harm on Sgt Kate Evans.

Devlin criticised the decision by the judge, Mr Justice Johnson, to send Head, Kamio and Rajwani back to jail before sentencing. “I am concerned for the state of British justice, for remanding three young women who’ve already served close to the upper limit of criminal damage [for a first-time offender], when the prosecution haven’t even suggested to remand them,” he said.

Devlin also criticised the judge’s decision to direct the jury to put aside “feelings of emotions and sympathy to those who support one side [in the Middle East]”. He said: “It’s just such a messed-up event that’s going on in this world and we’re just allowing it to happen but he’s instructed that the jury put any emotions aside, any sort of feelings that they have negatively or positively about what they call ‘the war in Gaza’, the fucking genocide in Gaza.

“British complicity in this is not just any sort of throwaway statement or a metaphor but really is bolstering this thing.”

After Tuesday’s convictions, including that of Corner for grievous bodily harm (GBH) – although he was cleared of the more serious count of GBH with intent – Tom Gent, the chair of Avon and Somerset Police Federation, said what happened at the Elbit site “wasn’t protest” but “violent and deliberate thuggery”. He also described the fracturing of Evans’s spine as “pure evil”.

Devlin, who shared a cell with Corner for six months, described Gent’s comments as “disappointing” and highlighted Corner’s evidence that he was panicked, had just been pepper-sprayed and acted to protect a co-defendant he believed was being seriously hurt.

He said: “In my opinion, the court penalises empathy for Evans so Sam can’t express it without pleading guilty to the charge he successfully had reduced. With Sam’s not guilty on section 18 [GBH with intent] and all of us having aggravated burglary and violent disorder dropped, that’s two separate juries not believing there is any intention of violence. So the notion of it being pure evil has been disproven.

“Pure evil is the war crimes these weapons are used for. I will see Keir Starmer’s cabinet at The Hague [international criminal court] in my lifetime.”

Elbit has been approached for comment.