The latest round of cases against people accused of defying London's “no-protest zone” began towards the end of January: eleven individuals were scheduled to appear in four separate trials. All had been charged originally under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) for being part of an “unauthorised demonstration”.
Under the new Act, anyone wishing to demonstrate within 1km of parliament must apply to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner at least six days in advance or,…
On 5 December, ten anti-Trident activists were each fined a total of £300 by a Scottish Sheriff who takes a dim view of people not doing exactly what the police tell them on every occasion. The activists were in bother for being the crew of a large model nuclear weapons submarine which blocked the street outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on 10 March.
The ten were accused under the Roads (Scotland) Act with placing an obstruction in the roadway without reasonable…
The second trial of the “`Pitstop Ploughshares Five” dramatically collapsed in Dublin's Four courts last month after counsel for the Defence alleged the presiding judge had met George Bush in Texas in 1995, attended his presidential inauguration in 2001, and was invited by disgraced Senator Tom DeLay to attend the 2005 “coronation”.
The jury were dismissed by the judge after 10 days of evidence that included expert testimony from former UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday…
On Friday 30 September, District Judge Peter Ward returned a verdict of guilty to the charges of Aggravated Trespass brought against six campaigners who had held a peaceful protest at Lancaster University more than a year before (see PN2462).
Dismissing the prosecution's and the University's claims that the six had intimidated University staff and conference delegates, Judge Ward nonetheless found them guilty because they had momentarily disrupted the conference. He also…
Campaigners scored a partial victory in the courts at the end of April when an attempt by EDO/MBM Technologies - Brighton's resident arms manufacturer - to create an exclusion zone around its factory, was temporarily thwarted (see PN2461 cover story).
A bigger court had to be made available to accommodate everyone when, on 17 May, supporters came to Harrogate Magistrates' Court to hear District Judge Roy Anderson sentence Lindis Percy following her five convictions - given on 14 April - for protest
As Peace News went to press, a High Court hearing into the injunctions demanded by Brighton arms manufacturers to restrict anti-war protests was still continuing. Richard Purssell reports... The injunction is being sought by EDO/MBM Technologies Ltd, subsidiary of the giant US arms manufacturer EDO Corp, under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
It seeks to create an exclusion zone, which would restrict all protest activities around the claimant's factory to two-and-a-half hours…
After a week of presiding over the trial of the Pit Stop Ploughshares in Dublin's Four Courts, Judge Frank O'Donnell dismissed the jury after admitting that that his actions could be perceived to be biased. He ordered a retrial for October.
On 3 February 2003, the Pit Stop Ploughshares Five disarmed a US Navy C40 plane in a hangar at Shannon Airport, County Clare, Ireland (see PN2458).
Two years later, on Monday 7 March, they finally went to trial. One hundred and fifty…
Regular Mole-istas will know that this column finds it hard to resist an opportunity to criticise once-Red Ken, Mayor of Greater London. And we all know very well, from recent evidence, that Ken “turn-again” Livingstone similarly finds it impossible (especially when in party mood) to resist slagging off the Daily Mail. Which leaves The Mole, also a hater of the Daily Wail, in an ambiguous position.
The Mail's wilful pandering to (and generation of) the ill-informed…
A lengthy legal struggle by two campaigners has been vindicated with a final victory in the the European Court of Human Rights: on 15 February the ECHR ruled that the McLibel 2 - Helen Steel and Dave Morris - had been denied freedom of expression and a fair trial when they were sued for libel by the multinational junk food giant McDonald's.
In other words, officialdom has caught up with what the rest of the world knew more than 10 years ago.
What's wrong with McD?McDonald'…
On 22 March 2003, three coaches set off from London to protest against the bombing of Iraq by US B52s which were flying missions from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. Police stopped, searched, turned away, and detained the London coaches before they reached the demonstration. The police actions have consequently become the subject of an ongoing legal case which had a ruling at the Court of Appeal on the 8 of December 2004. The recent ruling was unsatisfactory to the protesters even though…
When the invasion of Iraq was being planned, the US government needed bases to refuel and load planes full of troops en route to its bases in Qatar and Kuwait. They picked Shannon Airport in County Clare, Ireland. And, despite its much-vaunted neutrality, the Irish government was more than willing to help.
According to recent calculations, approximately 50,000 soldiers have passed through Shannon Airport on their way to fight the war in Iraq, never mind the weapons, which reportedly…
Five peace activists Margaret Jones, Paul Milling, Phil Pritchard, Toby Olditch, and Josh Richards, have been given leave to appeal to the House of Lords with regards to their various attempts at attempt to disarming USAF equipment at Fairford during early 2003.
Toby and Phil said their action was motivated by the inability of international pressure to prevent the prosecution of an illegal and unjustified war. Olditch and Pritchard entered Fairford with the intention to disabling the…
US anti-sanctions activists have had a long-threatened civil action brought against them by the US Treasury Department.
At the end of June, campaign group Voices in the Wilderness (US) were sent a summons for “judicial enforcement of a civil penalty of $20,000 assessed by the United States Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for violations of the Iraqi Sanction Regulations”. The summons gave the group 20 days to respond, otherwise a default judgement…
Over the past seven years, Voices in the Wilderness has been a nonviolent campaign to end the economic sanctions against the people of Iraq. Our focus has never been on political interests or the balance of power in international politics. Our concern has always been for the needs and interests of ordinary Iraqis, many of whom we have come to know.
From our presence in Iraq, we have seen no evidence that the lives of ordinary Iraqis are considered in US policy decisions. When…
