Arrests made after Palestine Action group deface London offices of major military supplier to Israel
Metropolitan Police have two activists in custody on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage following a protest in Eagle Place, Piccadilly.
Metropolitan Police have made two arrests following the defacing of a central London office building with red paint and ‘Free Palestine’ graffiti.
One Eagle Place in Piccadilly houses the offices of Leonardo UK, one of the UK’s leading aerospace companies. It is also one of biggest suppliers of defence and security equipment to the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and launched two development partnerships with Israel in February 2023.
Also resident in the building is Schulte Roth + Zabel, a Jewish firm of private capital lawyers, with offices in New York and Washington DC.
In a statement to Twitter/X, the Met said:
“Two men have been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage, which we are investigating as hate crime. Messages about the conflict between Israel and Hamas have been painted onto the building in red paint, which has also been thrown at it. We have no tolerance for graffiti with a hate connotation in London. One of the men who climbed onto the canopy above the building was safely removed by officers. Both men are in police custody.”
Palestine Action group have claimed responsibility for the defacement on Twitter/X posts.
Videos posted to the Palestine Action group’s social media accounts show a masked protester, wearing a black balaclava and waving a red smoke flare, declaring that ‘our government is complicit in genocide’.
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