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Prosecutors have accused pro-Palestinian activists who are charged with vandalising one of Donald Trump’s Scottish golf courses of committing acts connected with terrorism.
Seven individuals are accused of digging up turf at the prestigious Turnberry course in Ayrshire, spraying a chemical substance over the fairways and daubing red paint across the resort in the alleged incident last year.
In the indictment, Scottish prosecutors said the offence of malicious mischief was “aggravated by reason of having a terrorist connection”, which could lead to a tougher sentence if proved.
It is the latest case in the UK in which activists taking part in direct actions are accused of having a connection with terrorism, drawing criticism from human rights groups.
Four members of direct-action group Palestine Action who sabotaged a UK site of Israeli arms company Elbit Systems were sentenced as terrorists by a judge in London this year. A police officer suffered serious injuries in that incident.
Prosecutors also pushed for five Palestine Action activists who vandalised a Barclays branch in Burnley to be sentenced under terrorism laws, though the judge in that case ruled last week that they would not be.
UK MPs last year voted to proscribe Palestine Action, although the Supreme Court has given the group’s co-founder Huda Ammori permission to appeal against the ban and hearings are due to be held in early November.
A separate judicial review of the proscription in Scotland remains suspended pending the English appeals process.
In the Turnberry case, Scottish prosecutors highlighted the apparent political nature of the incident. The indictment reads: “You did . . . paint political offensive slogans on the grass, score a political slogan into the turf, paint political and offensive slogans on a building, walls and pillars.”
In March last year, before the UK banned Palestine Action, Trump described the alleged vandals as “terrorists” who should be “treated harshly”.
Kieran Robson, 35, of Galashiels, Uzma Bashir, 56, of Leeds, Ricky Southall, 34, of Wakefield, Autumn Taylor Ward, 22, of Liverpool, Rebecca Sian Davies, 29, of London, John Moxley, 58, of London, and Dylan Chiaramello, 24, also of London, are due to appear at the High Court in Glasgow on Monday.
Three of the defendants, Robson, Bashir and Davies, are additionally charged with attempting to “defeat the ends of justice”.
Prosecutors allege that the three drove to and from the Turnberry resort, which was purchased by the US president in 2014, with false registration plates to disguise their movements.
