TP titbits

News in Brief

On 12 July, two Trident Ploughshares (TP) campaigners were put in prison after refusing bail conditions. Brian Quail (79), a retired teacher from Glasgow; and Angie Zelter (66), a peace and environmental campaigner from Knighton in Wales, were both remanded in custody by Dumbarton sheriff court until 3 August.

Brian and Angie had both refused to accept a bail condition barring them from going within 100m of the Coulport nuclear weapon store and the Faslane nuclear submarine base. Angie argued that she had no intention of lying in the roadway again but had every right to protest at the bases.

The two had been held overnight with three others: Sam Donaldson (29), a community worker from Hull; Almudena Izquierdo Olmo (60), a worker at the University Politécnica in Madrid; and Juan Carlos Navarro Diaz (76), a librarian from the Canary Islands. The three were released after accepting the bail conditions.

The five had been arrested on 11 July for blocking the road leading to the Coulport depot for two and a half hours, from 7am till 9.30am.

A trial is due on 3 August for a breach of the peace.

The action was part of a Trident Ploughshares (TP) disarmament camp running from 8–16 July.

One of the things that happened during the camp was the testing of the marine boundaries around Coulport on Loch Long by campaigners in a canoe and an inflatable kayak (flying a CND flag).

On 13 July, two groups of TP protesters blockaded Coulport for over two hours. One group lay in the roadway joined to each other through lock-on tubes. The others, wearing carnival costume, occupied an alternative access route.

The four people in the lock-on group were eventually removed and arrested on a charge of breach of the peace. Those arrested were: Peter Anderson (60), from Wales; Esa Noresvuo (26) and Kaj Raninen (50), both from Helsinki; and Jamie Watson (35), from Glasgow.

All four were held overnight and released the next day, Esa Noresvuo not till 5pm. He had to wait for Reading court to fax Dunbarton court to confirm that they didn’t want to pursue the ‘hold’ they had on him for his last UK arrest at AWE Burghfield.

Trident Ploughshares is a network of affinity groups, of activists who have pledged to disarm the UK Trident nuclear weapons system in a nonviolent, open, peaceful, safe and fully-accountable manner.

If you would like to write to the prisoners before 3 August, here are the addresses:

Brian Quail, Number 13977
H M Prison Low Moss
Crosshill Road
Bishopbriggs
Glasgow G64 2QB

Angela Zelter, Number 50463
HMP Prison Edinburgh
33 Stenhouse Road
Edinburgh EH11 3LN