LONDON (Reuters) -British police have arrested four people in connection with a pro-Palestinian protest last week in which military planes were sprayed with paint at an air base in England, authorities said on Friday.
A woman, 29, and two men aged 36 and 24, were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, while another woman, 41, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, the police statement said.
Two activists from the Palestine Action group broke into the air base in central England on June 20, damaging and spraying red paint over two planes used for refuelling and transport, an act that was condemned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as “disgraceful.”
Within days the government set out plans to use anti-terrorism laws to ban Palestine Action, making it a criminal offence to belong to the group. Interior minister Yvette Cooper then said its actions had become more aggressive and caused millions of pounds of damage.
The government also said last week that it was reviewing security across all British defence sites following the incident.
(Reporting by Sarah Young and Sachin Ravikumar; writing by Muvija M; editing by William James)
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