A jury in Belfast Crown Court has acquitted nine women for their parts in a protest at the Raytheon plant in Derry in January 2009.

Julio Torrojo, Roisin Barton, Goretti Horgan, Elizabeth Doherty, Diana King, Helen Reynolds, Roisin Bryce, Sharron Meenan and Jackie McKenna were acquitted after just over an hour of jury deliberation.

Earlier this week, Judge Tom Burgess directed the jury to acquit another three of the 'Raytheon 14', Rory McDermott, John McMonagle and Bernard McFadden The jury convicted two defendants of minor offences.

The accused faced charges including breaking and entering over the direct action at the Raytheon company in Derry in January 2009, when a number of people acted to protect lives in Palestine during Israel’s brutal military assault on Gaza, which killed 1,400 people.

Raytheon supplied many of the bombs and missiles used in the Israeli assault on Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009. Raytheon's factories globally manufacture Tomahawk Cruise missiles, Sidewinder missiles, Hellfire missiles, the 'bunker buster' bombs, the delivery systems for cluster bombs, white phosphate and napalm.

In a statement the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) welcomed the decision by the jury. It commended those who faced the courts for their entirely appropriate response to the presence in Derry city of Raytheon, a company that has Israel as one of its largest customers. And it commended the jury for its good sense in finding them not guilty.

Israel has underlined its flouting of even the most minimal principles of international law with its brutal assault on the Freedom Flotilla in international waters this week.