FIVE Palestine Action activists in court for vandalising a Barclays Bank will not be sentenced as terrorists, a judge ruled today.

Supporters of the Barclays Five erupted in cheers as the ruling was given at Preston Crown Court, ahead of their sentencing next month for criminal damage costing £200,000.

Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham ruled that the defendants will face lesser sentences, after establishing that section 69 of the Sentencing Act, which would establish a terror link to the offences, did not apply.

While damage was substantial, he said, it was not of the same size as other attacks, nor did it target a sensitive property such as a weapons firm as targeted in other Palestine Action actions.

About 100 demonstrators were at the court in Preston yesterday to show support for defendants Brendon O’Hagan, 28, Amanda Kelly, 31, Hmeera Atiqnisar, 31, Mohammed Malik, 28, and Alma Yaniv, 70.

They were found guilty in June for damage on a Barclays branch in Lancashire in August 2024, where they broke windows and threw red paint at the building.

Barclays been criticised for its links to Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems. The bank has reportedly sold all its shares in the firm.

Defendants said they vandalised Barclays to press the bank into withdrawing financial support for Elbit.

Both the jury and the defendants have said they were unaware their cases would be considered as terrorism until after they were found guilty.

It was only after they were found guilty in June that judge Philip Parry told the prosecution he was planning on considering a “terrorist connection,” understood to be a result of newfound information during the trial.

The defendants in the Barclays trial, apart from Yaniv, were reportedly either closely linked to Palestine Action or full members.

Palestine Action was proscribed as a terror group by the Home Office in July 2025.

In May this year, a judge at Woolwich Crown Court ruled Palestine Action activists who caused £1.2 million of damage in an action on an Elbit factory near Bristol were to be tried as terrorists.

After yesterday’s ruling, the Barclays Five said they were “extremely relieved” adding that trying them as terrorists “should never have been an option.

“The state is attempting to equate property damage to the Israeli war machine with terrorism,” they said.