Five Stanford University students who were facing prison sentences and large restitution payments for their involvement in a protest against Israel’s war in Gaza had all charges dropped on Monday. The students also saw their restitution significantly reduced, ending a legal battle that lasted nearly two years. This case also led to the removal of the lead prosecutor, Jeff Rosen, from the case due to a conflict of interest. The students were part of a group of 12 who had been charged with felony conspiracy to trespass and vandalism after they occupied the university president’s office for about an hour in June 2024. During the occupation, they demanded that Stanford consider a student resolution to divest from Israel and made other requests. Some of the group accepted plea deals or other diversion programs, but five of them went to trial earlier this year. The trial lasted a month but ended in a hung jury. Rosen had announced his intention to retry the case, but a judge ordered his recusal in May over a conflict of interest, saying it would make it difficult for the defendants to receive fair treatment. The California attorney general’s office then took over the case and reached a resolution with the students. Under the agreement, all charges against the five students were dropped in exchange for 100 hours of community service at a nonprofit of their choosing and a total restitution of about $50,000—far less than the $1 million prosecutors had initially threatened and the $329,000 each student could have faced if found liable at trial. These were the most severe charges brought against students involved in pro-Palestine protests on campus. The charges against three other students who had previously accepted misdemeanor pleas will also be withdrawn once they complete their required community service. Two of the students who went to trial, German Gonzalez and Amy Zhai, shared their relief in interviews with the Guardian. They expressed frustration with what they saw as efforts by Stanford and Rosen to criminalize and silence pro-Palestinian speech. They hope their victory will encourage other students to continue speaking out. Zhai, who graduated from Stanford while the trial was ongoing and is now in law school at another university, said the resolution allows her to continue supporting the Palestinian cause, which had been limited by being a defendant in a criminal case. She noted that many people care about Palestine but are afraid to act due to the increased repression over the past two years. She said victories like this are necessary to encourage people to turn their beliefs into action. Thousands of students were arrested in pro-Palestinian protests in the spring of 2024, and many were suspended or expelled from their universities. Most of those facing criminal charges have had those charges dropped. Abbee Cox, a member of the Stanford students’ legal team, said the resolution aligns with other outcomes in similar cases, which often result in diversion deals rather than severe sentences. She said the attorney general’s office handled the case in a way consistent with how other peaceful protesters at Stanford have been treated over the years, including those protesting apartheid and the Vietnam War. The protests at Stanford were part of a broader wave of campus activism that erupted in the first year of the Gaza war. The students briefly occupied the president’s office, renaming it after Adnan al-Bursh, a Palestinian surgeon who was reportedly tortured to death in Israeli detention. They were immediately arrested, suspended, and banned from campus for two terms. It was not until April 2025 that Rosen announced criminal charges against the group, stating at a press conference that “dissent is American, vandalism is criminal.” Rosen was later removed from the case after the students’ legal team provided evidence that he had used the pending case to fundraise for his re-election campaign. Rosen accused the students’ defense attorney of using an “antisemitic trope” in response to the recusal effort. During pre-trial motions, Rosen sought to block the students from discussing “genocide” or the political motivations behind their protest, but the court denied his request. However, he successfully prevented the students from calling an international human rights expert to testify or using the First Amendment as a defense. Gonzalez, a sophomore at the time of the protest, is set to graduate this year but said he feels under constant scrutiny from university administrators. “It’s difficult to go to classes and walk from your library to your classroom without being followed by campus security,” he said. “It feels demeaning to be surveilled to that degree. All I have done is stand up for what I believe in.”