Three women have been charged under the Terrorism Act following a dramatic incident in which a van was driven into the perimeter fence of the Leonardo defence facility on Ferry Road in Edinburgh last week.
The incident occurred on the morning of Tuesday 15 July and involved a blue Ford Transit van breaching the security fence of the site, which employs around 1,800 people and plays a critical role in developing radars and countermeasure systems for military aircraft.
Shortly after the incident, a pro-Palestinian activist group named Shut Down Leonardo Edinburgh claimed responsibility. In an online statement, the group alleged that Leonardo supplies weapons and aircraft to Israel and said their objective was to disrupt operations at the facility.
Images shared on social media appeared to show individuals standing on top of the van following the crash. The three women – aged 31, 34 and 42 – were arrested at the scene and, according to Police Scotland, have now been formally charged under terrorism legislation. They are due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Monday 21 July.
Police Scotland’s Counter Terrorism Unit is leading the investigation. In a statement issued on Friday, the force said it was appealing for information related to two vehicles – the Ford Transit involved in the incident and a white Honda CR-Z recovered from a car park in the Gorgie Road area.
“As part of our investigation, officers are appealing for information to trace the movements of a blue Ford Transit van in the Gorgie Road area on Monday 14 July and prior to the incident on Tuesday 15 July,” the statement said. “They are also keen to trace the movements of a white Honda CR-Z on these dates.”
The force added that anyone who witnessed the incident or who may have dashcam footage from the area is asked to contact police via 101, quoting reference 0416 of 15 July.
Leonardo UK, the Italian-owned defence contractor, has not yet made a public statement regarding the incident. The Edinburgh site is a key hub for the company’s work on international defence programmes, including components for the Eurofighter Typhoon and advanced radar systems used by NATO forces.
The incident marks the latest in a series of direct action protests targeting defence-related facilities in the UK.
Putin’s useless idiots or Hamas’s useless idiots?
Actually could be both, the sentiment is pro Hamas but the funding comes from Russia or Iran
Great news!
#Day36
I’m sad they have been accorded terrorism charges.
These people are just criminal idiots.
Criminal damage – yes
Damage to protected premises space – yes
Harassment of staff – likely to cause alarm/fear – yes
Using vehicle as a weapon – yes
Plenty to charge with and I hope they get long sentences as a deterrent to others.
The use of criminal damage to facilitate political change is the basis of terrorism.
I tend to disagree. We may consider them to be ‘useful idiots’ , but they do not, they consider this direct action as fully justified. They are accordingly useful to malign governments and groups, and subsequently these should be considered terrorist influenced incidents . The perpetrators should be charged as such- for ,if not ,at some point surely they will just escalate their actions.
I believe terrorism charges are justified to reflect the nature and intent of what they did.
Terrorism, by legal definition (Terrorism Act 2000), isn’t limited to headline-grabbing attacks with casualties. It includes the use or threat of serious violence or disruption intended to influence the government or intimidate the public, for a political, religious, or ideological cause. That’s exactly what this was.
These women didn’t just damage property or harass staff — they deliberately targeted a high-profile, sensitive site with the intent to cause disruption in pursuit of a broader ideological goal.
So, I believe charging this as terrorism isn’t an overreach. It’s about acknowledging that political violence — even when dressed up as activism — is dangerous and corrosive. If we’re selective about who is held accountable under terrorism laws, we risk creating a double standard where the offender’s ideology determines how seriously we treat the threat.
If their actions had been committed by Muslim men, few would hesitate to call it terrorism. The law should apply equally.
women drivers 🙂
Good, give them 10 years each…
If they care about Gaza so much, send them there, no passports etc. Bye Bye.
Have the ones who attacked the Brize Norton tankers been charged?.
Yes – they’ve been charged with:
• Conspiracy to commit criminal damage
• Conspiracy to enter a prohibited place
They haven’t been directly charged under the Terrorism Act, but the CPS and Counter Terrorism Policing have stated that the charges are being treated as having a terrorist connection, due to the ideological motive and the targeting of military infrastructure.
They’ve been remanded back into custody, with a provisional trial set for January 2027 👍
These groups will keep popping up until such time as the British government starts treating the death of civilians in Gaza with the same seriousness as Ukraine.
So we should do what Palestine action wants to prevent more violence?
Sounds like terrorism to me
Disagree, there is a pretty clear line between the right to protest, which is a legal right, and committing terrorist acts, which clearly is not.
But charging protesters with ‘terrorism’ for ramming a gate in their van is way over the top. Criminal damage yes, dangerous driving yes, but hardly terrorism.
We have to be careful on this slippery slope. The police and courts dealt well enough with the hundreds of Greenham Common protesters, who frequently broke through the perimeter fence and caused damage, without needing to label them as terrorists.
There is much public concern about Israel’s heavy-handed actions in Gaza and the West Bank, with charges of war crimes and humanitarian crimes. Labelling those who.feel the need to protest as terrorists skates on pretty thin legal ice.
We are not obliged to follow the USA’s ardent, unquestionning support for everything Israel and Netanyahu.
Nope. It’s a fair critique of the current situation. The public in general are not satisfied with the governments response to Israeli behaviour in Gaza.
Good- alongside the 98 protestors arrested nationally who openly supported Palestine Action- a proscribed terrorist group and a further group of 24 a week ago.
The penalty should be really clear- penalty of jail time, curfew and wearing a tag + having a criminal record for terrorism supporting actions- that’s if you are a British citizen with the right to remain, anyone else- deport to country of origin with clear instructions you return you get arrested, charged and sent back again. For many of these individuals removing their right to remain in our free and democratic society is the biggest penalty they can face.
“One man’s Nelson Mandela is another mans Nelson Mandela”.