Filton jury asked judge if he planned terror sentences: ‘Not your concern’

Filton — The judge in a trial of anti-genocide activists this week told the jury that it was none of their business whether he would impose terrorism sentences for the criminal damage charges they faced.

Claire Hinchcliffe is the mother of ‘Filton 24’ activist Zoe Rogers – who was acquitted for the second time in May 2026. She reported that jurors had heard about the sentencing of Rogers’s co-defendants on as terrorists — subject to longer sentences and decades-long restrictions even after their release — after they were convicted of criminal damage.

The judge in that trial had ordered lawyers and press to keep silent about the likely terror sentence during the trial. So the jury in this week’s trial sent the judge a note to ask whether he was planning to do the same. The judge’s response? ‘Not your concern’:

…that this was not the jury’s concern.

(If I was a juror, I’d have been furious)

38 hours of deliberation later… 6/

— Clare Hinchcliffe (@Subversivite) August 21, 2026

Filton — Sick farce

No doubt appalled at such a response, the jury refused to convict. The state machine is likely to demand a retrial, as they did with Zoe Rogers and her comrades.

The May trial was not the first instance of judges — some closely aligned with the intelligence services — trying to prevent jurors knowing the full facts and law applicable to the case. Peaceful demonstrators have been arrested and prosecuted simply for holding signs informing jurors — entirely correctly — that they have a legal right to acquit no matter what they judge and prosecution say.

And Filton lawyer Rajiv Menon is fighting contempt of court charges for telling jurors that point of law and the activists’ motives to resist genocide through their actions against an Israeli arms factory.

English law is a sick farce. ‘Friend of genocide’ home secretary Shabana Mahmood’s court failures in the Filton trial and the persecution of Jewish activist Tony Greenstein mean that Burnham’s supposed intention to bin his predecessor’s plan to scrap jury trials for most people is unlikely to survive. Juries are likely to have humanity and conscience — and that gets in the way of the UK state’s determination to protect genocidal Israel.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox