KC challenges contempt claim
Court of Appeal ruling awaited on Rajiv Menon
A leading defence barrister in two recent Palestine Action trials is waiting to hear whether he will face proceedings for contempt in the face of the court. This type of judge-made law has been explained in past cases as “conduct that denotes wilful defiance of, or disrespect towards, the court — or that wilfully challenges or affronts the authority of the court or the supremacy of the law itself”.
Rajiv Menon KC is accused of breaching court rulings in his closing speech to the jury in the first trial of activists on 8 January. None of the defendants was found guilty by that jury. But four supporters of Palestine Action were convicted of criminal damage this week, after a retrial.
One of them was Menon’s client, Charlotte Head, 30. She and Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, broke into an Elbit Systems factory near Bristol in August 2024 before destroying property and clashing with security guards and the police. That was nearly a year before Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
Corner was also found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm after striking a police officer twice with a sledgehammer, fracturing her spine. All four defendants were remanded in custody for sentencing on 12 June.
