By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin
LONDON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Seven protesters accused of daubing pro-Palestinian graffiti on U.S. President Donald Trump's Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last year could face longer sentences if found guilty due to what prosecutors have described as a "terrorist connection."
Activists from the now banned group Palestine Action were charged last year with criminal damage for spray-painting walls at the course with the slogans "Free Gaza" and "Free Palestine" as well
as insults against Trump.
"Gaza is not for sale" was painted on one of the greens, and holes on the course were dug up.
The indictment, provided by the Scottish courts' service on Friday, stated that the seven accused "did maliciously dig up turf on the golf courses", sprayed weedkiller on the fairways and greens, and painted "political and offensive slogans on the grass".
'TERRORIST CONNECTION'
It added that prosecutors would seek harsher sentences should they be found guilty because the alleged offences were "aggravated by reason of having a terrorist connection". The accused will make their first appearance in court on Monday.
Palestine Action, which had increasingly targeted Israel-linked defence companies in Britain, was proscribed under terrorism laws in Britain in July last year.
On Wednesday, the U.S. also designated it a terrorist group, as part of a Trump administration crackdown on "far-left extremists".
The campaign group Defend Our Juries said the seven accused of damage would, if found guilty, face far longer prison sentences should they be treated as terrorists even though they had not been charged with any terrorism offences.
"It’s now all too clear why the White House has designated Palestine Action as a global terror organisation, alongside al Qaeda," a spokesperson for the group said. "It's because members of Palestine Action upset the president in March 2025 by making a mess of his golf course."
In June, four members of Palestine Action received longer jail terms after being found guilty over a raid on a factory operated by Israeli defence firm Elbit that caused more than £1 million of damage because the judge concluded there was a terrorism connection.
That drew condemnation from human rights groups and high-profile supporters who said it was disproportionate.
Days later, Britain's Court of Appeal upheld the government's ban on Palestine Action, saying the group "overtly promoted unlawful violence amounting to terrorism". Its co-founder Huda Ammori is seeking to now challenge the implementation of the ban in the UK Supreme Court.
"The news that the defendants could face terror sentencing — and that Trump is now following Britain’s lead by banning Palestine Action in the U.S. — should be the final nail in the coffin of this ban, which has become one of the most extreme attacks on free speech and the right to protest in modern British history," she said in a statement.
(Reporting by Michael Holden and Sam Tobin; Editing by Conor Humphries)
