In August of this year, five people were sentenced to prison for a crime they all admitted to, which left no-one injured, and which many would argue was an act of legitimate protest.

The central facts of the case are not in dispute.

Stuart Bretherton, 25 along with Eva Simmons, 25, Calum Lacy, 23, Erica Hygate, 23, and Sumaya Javaid, 22, scaled the roof of the Thales building in Govan on June 1, 2022.

The pro-Palestinian activists were aiming to shut down the plant due to its French owner's contract with Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems, which produces 85% of drones used by the Israel Defence Forces as well as the same proportion of the country’s land-based equipment.

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The factory produces components for the Watchkeeper drone, which is used by the UK Ministry of defence and based on the Elbit's Hermes 450.

The Hermes 450 has been deployed in Gaza and is believed to be the drone which carried out the strike which killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers.

Thales says that while it does have SME joint venture with Elbit, its Govan factory "does not supply the Israeli military or Israeli MOD". Activists contend that by having a relationship with Elbit, Thales is "complicit in the genocide of Palestinians".

While on the roof of the factory, they unfurled banners and flags, as well as igniting pyrotechnics, with the building evacuated when Hygate and Javaid entered the building and tripped the fire alarm.

A smoke bomb was also thrown toward the area to which staff were being evacuated, with some damage caused to parts in the factory.

Hygate and Javaid remained on the roof overnight having glued themselves to the premises.

All five admitted to breach of the peace at Glasgow Sheriff Court, with Hygate further admitting to vandalism and Javaid to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.

For their actions sheriff John McCormick sentenced four to 12 months in prison and Javaid to 14 months.

(Image: Gordon Terris) Guidelines introduced in January 2022 state that prison should be a last resort for sentencing a person under 25 and, if they are imprisoned, it should be shorter than had they been 25 or over.

In 2023, 22-year-old Sean Hogg was given a community sentence after being found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl when he was 17 due to the guidelines. He was acquitted on appeal after it was found the judge had misdirected the jury during his trial.

Annie Lane is Mr Bretherton's partner and is pregnant with his child. She told The Herald: "Whether it’s protest or not, going to prison on a first time offence of breach of the peace is pretty extreme.

"They ignored a lot of the norms in the sentencing. Three of them were under-25, and Calum and Stuart have the same sentence but Calum’s under-25.

"When people are on trial they all have to meet with a social worker and all of the social workers recommended a non-custodial sentence, all five separate social workers.

"I think they’re the first political prisoners in Scotland since the 1990s, so it’s an almost unprecedented move from the judge and for three of them it was just for one charge, breach of the peace."

Mr Bretherton and Mr Lacy are currently imprisoned at HMP Barlinnie in Glasgow. They are appealing their sentence, with their appeal granted leave to proceed on the first sift and a hearing to be held on Tuesday.

Ms Lane said: "It was especially shocking as we weren’t really expecting it.

“Both of us were living in Bristol before this but he’s now in Barlinnie, it was really difficult for me to travel from Bristol because he only gets a visit weekly so we had to move up here.

"It was just the two of us living together and I didn’t really want to be on my own and pregnant, and also just having that happen while being pregnant has been quite stressful.

“He was very involved in going to all the maternity appointments with me and supporting me when I was quite sick at the start, so it’s added a whole extra level of stress.

“Luckily his job has stuck by him, which was obviously a bit of a worry because once you’ve gone to prison your chances of getting a job can go down a lot.”

The decision was welcomed by prominent political figures.

(Image: Gordon Terris)

Lord Walney, the government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, said: "Hopefully these custodial sentences for their criminal damage and intimidation of working people will have a similar deterrent impact to those handed down to rioters recently.

"Activists considering breaking law to get their way need to see there will be grave consequences.”

Luke Akehurst, MP for North Durham, said: "I welcome the court imposing an appropriate custodial sentence, which will hopefully deter such vandalism by extremists in the future.”

Lord Walney was chair of Labour Friends of Israel from July 2011 to January 2013 and was formerly the paid chair of the Purpose Defence Coalition, a group which includes arms manufacturer Leonardo, which has also been the subject of pro-Palestine protests. He remains its engagement director, for which he receives payment.

Mr Akehurst was, until his election this summer, a director of the pro-Israel advocacy group We Believe In Israel.

Sheriff McCormick said at sentencing there was "no suitable alternative" to a custodial sentence, despite all five pleading guilty and expressing "a high level of regret".

He reasoned that the "gravity and the consequences" meant prison was the only suitable punishment.

In sentencing he laid out the "major impact" of the protest, namely damage of £1,130,783 and the deployment of 20 constables, one inspector and two sergeants to the factory across two days.

The Herald asked Thales how the extent of the damages was calculated. The manufacturer did not respond.

Ms Lane said: "They had to shut down for a day, and there was some damage.

“Three of them got charged with breach of the peace and two of them got a charge linked to criminal damage, but the lawyers argued that the amount of criminal damage they did couldn’t have been anywhere near that figure.

“There doesn’t seem to have been a price breakdown, the prosecution didn’t break down ‘this is how much was spent on this, this is how much that cost’ the figures just come from Thales.

"Thales make so much money that it doesn’t seem that it would be that impactful for them.”

In its results for the first half 2024, Thales announced profits before interest and taxes of €1.1bn (£930m).

It took orders of €10.7bn (£9bn), of which €6.1bn (£5.1bn) was for defence and security. Four large orders booked for Q1 included 18 Rafale fighter jets for Indonesia, 400 ASTER B1NT ground-to-air missiles for France and Italy, a contract to produce sonars for French nuclear submarines and "an air surveillance system for a military customer in the Middle East".

The sentences, totally more than five years between the protestors, came after close to 500 prisoners were released early in June and July thanks to overcrowding.

Ms Lane said: "Loads of the prison guards are like, ‘why are you here?’. All of them say they’ve never had a protestor in Barlinnie and they’re also saying, ‘we don’t have people in for first time breach of the peace’.

“Calum is an American citizen but he has Scottish family here, he was living here for a while and then came back for the trial.

“Now they’re threatening him with deportation, it all just seems really extreme.

"What these guys did was to try and not be complicit in a genocide. One of the girls spoke about how she couldn’t bear watching the children being bombed anymore.

“They’ve all been part of Palestinian solidarity in different ways for a long time, and often direct action is what people use as a last resort.

“It’s hard to look at what’s happening in Palestine and understand why they’re the ones being jailed."

While the issue of the war in Gaza is a contentious one, Ms Lane cautions against those who would write off the sentences handed down due to their personal views on the conflict.

A campaign, Justice for the Thales 5, has been launched with a crowdfunder to cover things like bills and travel, and a campaign to write to MPs.

She warned: "What this has also done is that the sentencing itself has set a precedent in Scots law which can be used against other protestors, which is dangerous.

“We know from things like the suffragettes or workers’ rights movements that a lot of times change comes from direct action, back in the day things like the anti-apartheid struggle also involved direct action."

The Justice for the Thales 5 campaign can be found here.