Yvette Cooper’s Palestine Action Article Risked Prejudicing Activists’ Trial

Former home secretary Yvette Cooper risked prejudicing the trial of six Palestine Action activists by writing an article justifying her decision to ban the group, the Guardian has revealed.

The Crown Prosecution Service warned Cooper that her op-ed in the Observer last August might unfairly impact the outcome of an ongoing trial relating to a break-in at an Israeli-owned weapons factory.

​The activists were cleared of aggravated burglary at the end of that trial but, following a retrial, four of them were found guilty of criminal damage on 5 May. They now face being sentenced under anti-terrorism law despite the fact the jury was only aware of the criminal damage charges.

In the article, Cooper wrote that Palestine Action activists were facing “charges that include, in the assessment of the independent Crown Prosecution Service, a terrorism connection.”

At the time, it had not been made public that anyone arrested in connection to the group’s activities was facing terrorism-related charges, and the media was banned from reporting on it until after this month’s verdict.

In response to Cooper’s article, defence lawyers argued last year that a fair trial would be impossible. They said in a written submission that the article was “dripping in innuendo.”

​They added: “In one breath, she is saying that many important details cannot yet be publicly reported; in another, she is reporting some of those very details herself”.

In a pre-trial ruling in November, Mr Justice Johnson said Cooper “was specifically advised that going ahead with the article might prejudice these proceedings” but she “went ahead anyway”.

But he dismissed the defence’s application and ruled that the article did not ultimately prejudice proceedings. A Home Office spokesperson said: “The judge concluded that the article did not prevent a fair trial taking place.”

Cooper’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation was ruled unlawful by the high court earlier this year, but the ban remains in place amid an appeal by the government.

More than 3,000 people have been arrested for defying the ban by holding signs expressing their support for the group and their opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.