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Defend Our Juries

@defendourjuries.bsky.social

2.6K followers 36 following 710 posts

Jurors have a right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience, irrespective of a Judge’s directions. Every defendant deserves access to fair justice. We are a UK-based campaign to ensure fair justice in UK courtrooms. www.defendourjuries.net

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 11d

BREAKING: Over a thousand people gather in Trafalgar Square to oppose genocide and the Palestine Action ban.

Police have already started arresting peaceful protestors under the Terrorism Act for silently holding signs which say "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action"

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 8h

This is one of the reasons Defend Our Juries have been taking recent action to Lift The Ban.

We will continue to work to #FreePoliticalPrisoners and to end the corrupting of UK law for vested corporate interests.

wedonotcomply.org

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 8h

When juries are told the whole truth, they can make fair judgments. Ministers are attempting to suggest that these activists are terrorists, misleading potential jurors (that’s you!)

Yvette Cooper’s ban on Palestine Action is an affront to fair trials.

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 8h

Many of the 24 have been held in prison for over a year without trial through use of terrorism law, despite no terror-related charges being brought.

We brought our art exhibition - A Timeline of Corruption - to their pre-trial hearing outside Woolwich Crown Court.

Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 8h

FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS

Defend Our Juries returned to Woolwich Crown Court this week to support the Filton 24.

The Filton 24 are anti-genocide activists who used direct action to end UK complicity in Israel’s genocide by dismantling weapons at Elbit Systems weapons factory.

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 14h

The intention isn’t for peaceful protesters to get arrested. The intention is for a democratic and just system to refuse to arrests those trying to prevent harm, to prosecute those causing harm, and to bring justice to victims of that harm.

Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 17h

“Protest is allowed, as long as it’s invisible, transient and useless. But the moment protest ceases to be effective is the moment democracy dies.”

- @GeorgeMonbiot

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Here’s what you need to know about Starmer’s illiberal protest curbs: they would have killed the Labour party at birth | George Monbiot

The rights we enjoy in the UK, and the movement the PM purports to lead, were built on protest. Those rights are in dire peril, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Right to protest is under sustained attack in the west, report finds

Counter-terror laws being ‘weaponised’ against pro-Palestine groups in UK, US, France and Germany, says International Federation for Human Rights

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Right to protest is under sustained attack in the west, report finds

Counter-terror laws being ‘weaponised’ against pro-Palestine groups in UK, US, France and Germany, says FIDH

www.theguardian.com

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 1d

Mary Lawlor, UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders, accuses US, UK and other governments of paying lip service to climate goals while criminalizing activists.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘It’s a road to destruction’: climate defenders facing surge in reprisals, says UN expert

Mary Lawlor, UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders, accuses US, UK and other governments of paying lip service to climate goals while criminalizing activists

www.theguardian.com

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 2d

This brave Jewish mother was among 488 people arrested in London on October 4th for holding cardboard signs at a Lift The Ban peaceful vigil.

“This is not terrorism, how dare my government say otherwise!?”

The ban on Palestine Action must be immediately lifted.
wedonotcomply.org

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 3d

Labour must do more to uphold the right to free speech and explain more clearly why there is a ban on Palestine Action, a Labour peer has urged.

- The Standard

www.standard.co.uk/news/palesti...

Who are Palestine Action? Labour peer urges more clarity on terrorist proscription

Hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested for holding signs saying they ‘oppose genocide and support Palestine Action’

www.standard.co.uk

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Reposted by Defend Our Juries

Netpol @netpol.org · 5d

One of our team was arrested yesterday for allegedly breaching protest restrictions, even though they weren't protesting – because wearing a keffiyeh while walking down the street is "reasonable suspicion".

This is the result of Starmer's crackdown: we're back in time to Nov 2023 under the Tories

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 5d

“It was the 89th anniversary of the arrest of my father for being one of the organisers of the 1936 Cable Street resistance to the rise of fascism in Britain.

I was arrested on Saturday with hundreds of others at the Defend Our Juries action…”

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Anti-protest proposals put free speech at risk | Letters

Letters: Readers respond to the proposal to give police further powers to curb ‘cumulative’ protests, in response to actions by the proscribed group Palestine Action

www.theguardian.com

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 5d

BREAKING

Former British diplomat challenges Palestine Action ban in Scotland

@craigmurrayorg.bsky.social argues proscription order contravenes rights to freedom of speech under European convention of human rights.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Former British diplomat challenges Palestine Action ban in Scotland

Craig Murray argues proscription order contravenes rights to freedom of speech under European convention of human rights

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Defend Our Juries

Quakers in Britain @quaker.org.uk · 6d

Quakers in Britain have warned that new government plans to tighten protest laws even further are "not only unnecessary but dangerous".

Quakers warn new protest powers “dangerous and unnecessary”

Quakers in Britain have warned that new government plans to tighten protest laws even further are “not only unnecessary but dangerous”.

www.quaker.org.uk

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 6d

Tim Crosland offers a first-hand account of his recent treatment by police and reflects on what these escalating clampdowns mean for democracy and justice in the UK.

- @BylineTimes

youtu.be/VeGEKQ1SLRI

Meet the Ex-Goverment Lawyer Arrested under the Terrorism Act...

YouTube video by Byline TV

youtu.be

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 7d

“Arrested for holding up a copy of The New World. How bloody un-British

This government’s stupid criminalisation of peaceful protestors is a hole they keep on digging”

- The New World Magazine

www.thenewworld.co.uk/matt-kelly-a...

Sign up to oppose this absurd ban: wedonotcomply.org

Arrested for holding up a copy of The New World. How bloody un-British

This government’s stupid criminalisation of peaceful protestors is a hole they keep on digging

www.thenewworld.co.uk

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Reposted by Defend Our Juries

Tony Booth @tonybooth1.bsky.social · 8d

I sat on the Defend our Juries protest as a Jew opposing genocide and antisemitism countering the absurd insult that to oppose genocide is antisemitic. @defendourjuries.bsky.social @andrewfeinstein.bsky.social @owenjones.bsky.social @jewishvoice.bsky.social @zackpolanski.bsky.social

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Reposted by Defend Our Juries

Netpol @netpol.org · 10d

The Home Office sham "consultation" on cumulative protests closed on 29 September, so this immediate announcement shows Labour had already decided – yet again – to expand public order powers, well before the Manchester attack that is now used to justify it
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Police to get new powers to crack down on repeated protests, says Home Office

Move follows arrest of almost 500 people at latest pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Defend Our Juries

filmnathan @filmnathan.bsky.social · 10d

While being arrested for holding a placard, one protester recites a poem by 9-year-old Fatema Saidam who was killed, along with her entire family, by an Israeli airstrike on October 17, 2023.

@defendourjuries.bsky.social

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 10d

It is not unlawful to oppose the proscription of Palestine Action.

This is one of many unlawful arrests over recent weeks, not including over 2,000 people who have been arrested for holding signs stating “I oppose genocide - I support Palestine Action”.

wedonotcomply.org

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 10d

UNLAWFUL ARREST

This woman was arrested for holding a sign with “I do not support the proscription of Palestine Action” on it, a totally lawful statement to make, even under the Labour government’s absurd new laws proscribing the direct action group.

wedonotcomply.org

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 10d

“Ministers are to give police new powers to target repeated protests, aimed particularly at cracking down on demonstrations connected to Gaza, the Home Office has said.”

They’re enabling a genocide and silencing opposition. This is authoritarianism.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Police to get broader powers to crack down on repeated protests

The move is not a ban on protests but "about restrictions and conditions", Shabana Mahmood tells the BBC.

www.bbc.com

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 11d

‘Enough is enough’ says chief of Police Federation as ‘exhausted’ officers arrest 493 at Palestine Action protest

The bulk of the arrests were made at Trafalgar Square, where around 1,000 protesters sat silently, some holding signs.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

‘Enough is enough’ says chief of police federation over Palestine Action rally

Met Police said many of those arrested needed carrying away after they refused to walk from Trafalgar Square – but Amnesty International says arresting hundreds of people at the demonstration is ‘not ...

www.independent.co.uk

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 11d

BREAKING: Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) arrest protestors in Trafalgar Square, London, for holding signs which say they oppose genocide and support Palestine Action.

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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 11d

A police officer unnecessarily kneels on the chest of a peaceful protestor, before arresting him for a 'terror' offence for holding a sign which says "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action"

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