Six Palestine Action activists face retrial as remaining Filton 24 found not guilty
Protestors with placards stating the length of time Palestine Action defendants had been in prison on remand.
Anam Alam reports in The New Arab on 18 February 2026:
The remaining defendants from the so-called Filton 24 have been found not guilty of aggravated burglary in Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday, after the first six Palestine Action activists were acquitted two weeks ago.
Five activists, William Plastow, Ian Sanders, Madeline Norman, Julia Brigadirova and Aleksandra Herbich, have also been granted conditional bail after prosecutors decided not to pursue aggravated burglary charges. Applications for a further eight defendants are expected to be heard on Friday.
“I’m in a very, very excited group chat. People are literally sobbing, I was,” Clare Hinchcliffe, mother of Zoe Rogers, who was acquitted over the Filton protest early February, told The New Arab.
“I don’t know how I feel. I’m all over the place. I’ve been sobbing my heart out.” While Hinchcliffe expresses joy, she cannot help but think about the time the defendants have lost during remand.
“It’s bittersweet because it’s like, ‘hooray, they’re finally free, but also, why did they have to spend 18 months of their life in prison?'”, Zoe’s mother says. “They’ve been robbed of time that they can never get back in their lives. Their communities were robbed, their families were robbed, and it’s absolutely appalling.”
“To do that to people of conscience who only took action because they wanted to prevent a genocide and British complicity in genocide, that is absolutely disgusting. This government is criminal.”