The mother of a Southgate resident detained under terror laws following a protest shares her concerns about the government’s handling of the case

Clare Hinchcliffe shows support for her daughter Zoe Rogers

My life was turned upside down on 6th August last year when four police officers came to my home in Southgate Green.

They told me my daughter Zoe, aged 20, was being held at a Bristol police station. She and five others had been arrested at a facility in Filton, South Gloucestershire, belonging to Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems, where they had broken in and damaged armed drones and other equipment.

I was shocked, but on reflection, it wasn’t unexpected. Zoe was desperate to do something about the genocide in Gaza. She told me she didn’t think the pro-Palestine marches were working, and that direct action with the group Palestine Action was more effective. This group aims to disrupt arms exports to Israel. Their main target is Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, which has several subsidiaries in the UK.

After the police left I waited for a phone call from Zoe. It didn’t come. I later found out she had been re-arrested under the Terrorism Act. She was held without charge, incommunicado, in solitary confinement, interrogated day and night, for six days. She was then charged, refused bail, and sent straight to HMP Bronzefield. Watching her being led out of the courtroom at that moment was probably the most traumatic experience of my life.

Zoe looks set to stay at Bronzefield until her trial begins in November, 15 months after her arrest. She turned 21 years old in prison. Zoe is now one of the ‘Filton 18’, a group all being held behind bars without trial in connection with the same action.

The Filton 18 case should worry us all. The use of counter-terrorist powers against activists is unprecedented. None of them were charged under the Terrorism Act, but the Crown Prosecution Service insists there is a “terrorist connection”, and the investigation is led by counter terrorist police. This gives police extra powers – the twelve arrested later had violent predawn raids on their homes, with up to 30 officers per raid, breaking down doors, smashing windows, handcuffing younger siblings and seizing property. One of the 18 was arrested in front of his terrified partner with four guns pointed at his head.

Clare and Zoe together before Zoe’s detention

Four UN-appointed experts have now intervened, telling the British government it is abusing counter terror powers and that the Filton 18 group’s offences are not terrorist in nature. They also criticised the blanket refusal of bail and the “enforced disappearance” of those held incommunicado under the Terrorism Act.

Why is my daughter being called a ‘terrorist’ for her actions? Part of the answer seems to come from meetings and emails, now revealed under the Freedom of Information Act, between the Attorney General’s Office and the Israeli Embassy. It looks as if the government is trying to reassure Israel that it is cracking down on Palestine Action.

In other words, the British government seems to be putting the interests of Israel – a state committing crimes against humanity – ahead of the rights and freedoms of its own citizens. This should worry us all, and it’s happening alongside increased repression and criminalisation of all forms of protest. Are we sleepwalking into a police state?

Our government is also, arguably, committing war crimes by arming Israel. Zoe sacrificed her freedom trying to stop these weapons exports. Her actions are more in line with international law than our government’s. I think the wrong people are in prison.

Editor’s note: Zoe Rogers is charged with criminal damage, aggravated burglary and violent disorder. She denies the charges and is due to stand trial on 17^th November. Although there’s evidence of at least one shipment being sent to Haifa, Elbit Systems UK has denied that its Filton facility supplies the Israeli military with arms. In response to the article in The Guardian regarding the relationship between the British and Israeli governments, published in April, a UK government spokesperson said it was “routine” for the Attorney General’s Office “to help embassies get in contact with the relevant authorities purely for purposes of sharing information that could be relevant to a case” and that “decisions to prosecute, convict and sentence are, rightly, made independently of government”.

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