UK mom fights to free daughter facing terror charges for Palestine protest

It has been a distressing three months for Clare Rogers, the mother of 21-year-old Zoe Rogers, who, along with nine other Palestine Action activists, have become political prisoners in the United Kingdom.

The 52-year-old London resident said she is still getting used to what she describes as her and her daughter's "new normal."

Zoe Rogers is currently in prison, awaiting trial in November 2025, for taking direct action against a UK subsidiary of Israel's largest arms manufacturing company, Elbit Systems.

In addition to facing charges for destroying Elbit equipment, Zoe Rogers and her fellow activists could also go on trial for terrorism-related offences.

According to their families, the group is already being treated like serious criminals, rather than young people trying to protest a genocide.

In prison, some have been denied the right to make a call, others are kept in solitary confinement and constantly interrogated, and some have been denied reading materials and the right to practise religion. They've also reported being subject to intrusive medical testing, and, in the case of one activist, being woken up every hour.

“Just the phrase, ‘UK political prisoners,’ is very hard to get your head around,” Clare tells TRT World. "It's a shocking phrase because it's not what we think of when we think of the UK. But that's 100 percent what they are. They are political prisoners."

Increasing the pressure

Clare says Zoe was horrified by the genocide in Gaza and amid the UK's complicity in arming Israel, and felt marches and protests were having no effect.

In October, investment bank Barclays announced it was divesting from Elbit Systems following a yearlong campaign Palestine Action against its branches across the UK. The group, which smashed windows, spray-painted buildings in blood-red paint and disrupted bank services, successfully aimed to raise the cost on Barclays for doing business with Elbit.

Inspired by Palestine Action's strategy, Zoe, along with Samuel Corner, Jordan Devlin, Charlotte Head, Leona Kamio and Fatema Rajwani, broke into an Elbit Systems facility in Bristol in August, disabling weapons intended for use in Gaza, including quadcopter drones.

This specific type of drone mimics the sounds of distressed children to lure civilians to help them, with the intent to kill.

The group were arrested on the spot, and Hannah Davidson, Ian Sanders, William Plastow and Madeleine Norman were later taken into custody by counterterror police for being allegedly connected to the direct action. The 10 activists are commonly known as the “Filton10.”

The group has since been charged with criminal damage, violent disorder and aggravated burglary. The Crown Prosecution Service has also been working to add a terrorism charge to the list.

The trial is not until November 2025, and none of the activists have been given bail. The two youngest, Rogers and Rajwani, applied for bail a second time and were refused, so all 10 remain in prison on remand.

Prison restrictions

Clare Rogers says her daughter Zoe was denied the right to make a phone call for nearly two weeks. She was kept in the induction wing, where new prisoners stay while they are being processed, for two months. There, they are usually allowed to interact with other inmates if they choose.

She adds however that Zoe, who is autistic, finds social interactions difficult and it takes time for her to establish trust and rapport to develop friendships, so she kept herself in her room for most of that period, which had a severe impact on her mental health.

"I was phoning the prison every morning in tears and asking why can't I talk to her, and they kept saying, 'She hasn't had her security clearance yet.' So, they were obviously given a higher security status, because of the terrorism connection," she tells TRT World.

Eventually, Rogers and other detained activists' relatives figured out that visits were being restricted because the six female members of the group were not allowed to associate with one another while in jail.

"But they weren't told this. Visits were affected, so they would get one-sixth of the visiting opportunities that a normal prisoner does and it restricted what activities and jobs they could do in the prison," Rogers said.

She adds that prison conditions for Zoe and the other female activists, who are currently being held at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, only improved after two months of complaining, threatening legal action and hundreds of people emailing the prison director, including Zoe's local MP Bambos Charalambous.

The families of the Filton10 have also launched an online petition that has so far garnered more than 26,000 signatures. It urges Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Attorney General Lord Hermer and Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson to stop using counterterror laws to prosecute Palestine solidarity activists.

It also pushes officials to disclose any political or foreign interference involved in the policing and prosecution of activists.

These families have good reason to be concerned about the latter.

Political interference

In September, internal government documents obtained by Palestine Action under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that government officials held meetings with Elbit Systems before 7 October 2023 to reassure the company that they would crack down on protestors and activists targeting their facilities.

This suggests that political interference in the arrests of activists like the Filton10 is plausible. The briefing notes also showed one meeting was attended by a representative of the Crown Prosecution Service and that the Home Office had contacted the police about Palestine Action.

Clare says that Zoe and the rest of the Filton10's arrests were made possible by a sinister trend in the UK and across Europe, of governments changing laws to punish climate change, Stop Oil and Palestinian solidarity activists through anti-terrorism and anti-criminal gang laws.

This mirrors what a spokesperson for Netpol recently told Middle East Eye, that the state is trying out different laws to target activists and seeing what sticks in court.

In the UK, this all began with the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which has since allowed the Crown Prosecution Service to bring harsher penalties against protestors and activists.

Because Zoe and the Filton10 face a possible "terrorist connection" related to their actions against Elbit, activist groups like Palestine Action are effectively painted as terrorist groups. Clare says this is why her daughter and the other activists face restrictions on their rights.

She adds that it is clear that they are being made a public example of, in order to act as a deterrent to other activists. But she doesn't believe the government will be successful in this regard.

"Everyone I spoke to was incredulous that counterterror powers were being used. This has never happened before to Palestine Action activists. The investigation is being led by counterterrorism police, so the whole thing is using terrorism protocol. The whole trial is run differently to a normal trial and a normal investigation," she says.

Keeping hope alive

Other Palestine Action members have been arrested in the past for going against Elbit Systems, but were acquitted by the magistrates and jury after using the defence of the law of necessity, which says it's sometimes necessary to commit a crime to prevent a much worse crime. Clare is hopeful that this might work again in court come next November.

"They've upheld international law, because Israel and Elbit are committing war crimes. They've taken the law into their own hands and they've said, 'Well, we're not standing for this.' The law of necessity has been used before in UK courts to acquit activists… There's going to be a few less people killed (in Gaza) because they took action and destroyed those drones and reduced Elbit's capabilities."

More importantly, Clare and the other Filton10 families hope their petition will expose the lengths to which the UK government is being complicit in Israel's genocide.

Ultimately, UK terrorism laws are being abused to protect the interests of Israeli arms companies.

"Elbit Systems is working hand in glove with the UK Government. This is taxpayer money being used to build drones. And even when the UK gives contracts to Elbit for our own armed forces, the profits still go to Israel - the UK subsidiary and the parent company are one and the same. So, we're literally funding the genocide and that's not okay. We want people to know that's what's happening."