Four charged after drone factory protest

The factory has been the site of multiple demonstrations recently

Four people have been charged following a protest near a drone factory in Leicester.

Campaign group Palestine Action held a demonstration at Meridian Business Park, home to UAV Tactival Systems, on Monday morning.

The protest saw entrances to the site blocked before access was restored in the afternoon

Leicestershire Police said four people, aged between 20 and 31, and from Bristol, Bradford, Leeds and Buckinghamshire, were charged with locking on to a person/object/land to cause serious disruption.

Two of the protesters were also charged with wilful obstruction of a highway while another was charged with using threatening/abusive words/behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, and a fourth protester was charged with discharging a firework within 50m of a highway.

The force said all four would appear at Leicester Magistrates' Court at a later date.

UAV Tactical Systems is a subsidiary of Elbit Systems UK, which in turn is a subsidiary of international defence electronics company Elbit Systems.

Israel-based Elbit Systems makes drones used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

However, a UAV Tactical Systems spokesperson said the UK subsidiary was involved in the production of drones for the British Army and did not supply the Israeli military.

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