Seven protesters accused of defacing US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last year could receive tougher sentences if convicted, after prosecutors alleged that the offenses were linked to a “terrorist connection.”

The defendants, who were activists with the now-banned Palestine Action group, were charged last year with criminal damage after allegedly spray-painting pro-Palestinian messages on walls at the resort. The graffiti included the slogans “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine,” along with insults directed at Trump.

One of the golf course greens was marked with the words “Gaza is not for sale,” while sections of the course were also dug up.

According to an indictment released by the Scottish courts service on Friday, the seven defendants “did maliciously dig up turf on the golf courses,” used weedkiller on fairways and greens, and painted “political and offensive slogans on the grass.”

Prosecutors said they would seek tougher sentences if the defendants are convicted, arguing that the alleged crimes were “aggravated by reason of having a terrorist connection.” The seven accused are scheduled to make their first court appearance on Monday.

Palestine Action was formally banned under Britain’s terrorism laws in July 2025, following an escalation in its campaign against defense companies linked to Israel, particularly Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest defense contractor. The government imposed the ban shortly after activists broke into the Royal Air Force’s Brize Norton base in June 2025 and damaged two military aircraft.

Under the UK’s Terrorism Act, belonging to or supporting the protest organization is a criminal offense that can carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

The United States also designated Palestine Action as a terrorist organization on Wednesday, following Britain’s move, as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against what it describes as “far-left extremists.”

The campaign group Defend Our Juries said the seven defendants could face substantially longer prison terms if convicted and subjected to terrorist-related sentencing provisions, despite not being formally charged with terrorism offenses.

“It’s now all too clear why the White House has designated Palestine Action as a global terror organization, alongside al Qaeda,” a spokesperson for the group said. “It’s because members of Palestine Action upset the president in March 2025 by making a mess of his golf course.”

Founded in 2020, Palestine Action became increasingly prominent through major demonstrations and acts of vandalism after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered a two-year war in Gaza. The organization says its objective is to end “global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime.”

The United Kingdom’s Supreme Court said last month that it would hear an appeal challenging a lower court decision that upheld the legality of the government’s ban on Palestine Action.

By July 2026, approximately 3,000 people had been arrested in Britain for displaying signs supporting Palestine Action.

In June, a judge sentenced four activists to prison after they raided an Elbit facility near Bristol in 2024 and caused more than £1 million in damage. During the incident, one of the activists struck a police officer twice in the back with a sledgehammer, leaving her with a fractured spine.

Human rights organizations and prominent supporters have criticized the punishment as excessive.

Several days later, Britain’s Court of Appeal upheld the government’s prohibition of Palestine Action, ruling that the organization “overtly promoted unlawful violence amounting to terrorism.” Huda Ammori, the group’s co-founder, is now seeking to challenge the ban’s implementation before the UK Supreme Court.

“The news that the defendants could face terror sentencing, and that Trump is now following Britain’s lead by banning Palestine Action in the US should be the final nail in the coffin of this ban, which has become one of the most extreme attacks on free speech and the right to protest in modern British history,” she said in a statement.