R v Saibene and others was an English trial of seven of the "Smash EDO" campaign. On 16–17 January 2009 the activists broke into the armaments factory-office in Moulsecoomb and damaged equipment worth around £200,000. They were cleared by the jury of conspiring to cause and causing criminal damage. The jury accepted their defence that they were acting with lawful excuse by aiming to prevent Israeli war crimes during the 2009 Gaza War. Background EDO MBM Technology Ltd is a unit of ITT Integrated Structures, once owned by EDO Corporation. It has an armaments factory-office in Moulsecoomb, Brighton and Hove. Many actions since 2004 implored that the corporation should close or convert its factory to civilian use (road blockades, rooftop occupations, attempted weapons inspections, marches through the city centre of hundreds of protesters and three peace camps set up in woodland adjunct). Thereby arrests were made by Sussex Police, mostly under public order Acts. The campaign settled into the name "(the) Smash EDO Campaign". The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court brought into British domestic law by the ICC Act, makes it an offence for British citizens and residents to act in complicity in war crimes that take place anywhere in the world. In nearly all criminal trials, protesters against the company have argued that the company acts unlawfully by assisting war crimes committed in Iraq and the Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza. Magistrates in Brighton have generally refused to acknowledge the argument, but demonstrators have frequently been acquitted. In March 2008 a documentary, On the Verge, about the campaign was released. Break-in at EDO MBM Technology On 17 January 2009 activists Elijah Smith, 42, Robert Nicholls, 52, Tom Woodhead, 25, Harvey Tadman, 44, Ornella Saibene, 50, all from Bristol, raided the factory in Moulsecoomb, who pre-recorded their motivation in a video. Computers and filing cabinets were thrown out of windows and per the police assessment, "extensive damage was caused". Smash EDO said that they had performed a "citizen's decommissioning" of the factory in response to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. After these acts the activists lay down on the floor and waited to be arrested. After arrests, the motivations were posted on the Indymedia website. The total damage caused was later estimated at £180,000 (US$275,000). Police arrested people outside the factory including Christopher Osmond, 29, and Simon Levin, 35 of Brighton (joined as co-defendants). Trial