On 17 January, high court judge Keith Lindblom ruled that Occupy LSX, the tent city that has stood in front of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral since 15 October, was unlawfully obstructing a public highway.
Enforcement was delayed until 24 January (after PN goes to press) to allow time for an appeal.
However, despite the prospect of losing the birthplace of the UK’s Occupy movement, residents of the St Paul’s Cathedral encampment told PN they were not discouraged by the ruling. …
At least 400 people across the UK are being prosecuted for not completing last year’s national census. Many of them refused on grounds of conscience, protesting against the involvement of US arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin in data capture and processing.
On 17 January, Derek Shields, 57, from the Wirral, was found guilty of not completing the census and was fined £75. He has announced that he does not intend to pay the fine.
John Voysey from Herefordshire, who was a…
Thank you for the article on the fate of those who refused to fill in the 2011 census forms. (PN 2540-41).
The statements they will make in their own defence will be very interesting and helpful. I hope you can print some of them in an issue of Peace News.
In July, Camilla Berens was fined £200 and Michelle Jackson £95 after pleading guilty to obstructing the highway. In April they blockaded all four lanes of the A302 outside the HQ of EDF energy company and alongside the grounds of Buckingham palace for six hours, using tripods, in protest at EDF’s plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK. The demo was organised by the “EDF Boycott Campaign”.
For brilliant video of event, see:…
The 20 climate activists convicted of conspiring to shut down Ratcliffe coal power station had their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal in July, following the revelation earlier this year that the CPS had not disclosed evidence gathered by undercover cop Mark Kennedy which could have been useful to their defence. The ruling described Kennedy as “arguably an agent provocateur.”
Just the facts M'Lud...
On 22 March 2003, three coaches carrying around 120 protesters travelled to USAF Fairford from London for an anti-war demonstration. It was the first weekend of the Iraq War. They were stopped and searched at the village of Lechlade, three miles from Fairford. After being held for two hours they were let back on the coaches, but instead of being allowed to proceed to the authorised demonstration they were forcibly escorted, non-stop, back to London. (For…
During the Big Blockade of Faslane on 1 October 2007, Emily Freeman was arrested. Charged with breach of the peace, she was finally brought to trial in Helensburgh on 18 May 2008. Reflecting rather badly on police competence, the case was dropped due to lack of evidence. Here is an excerpt from Emily’s defence, which deserves a hearing:
Breach of the peace is defined as “conduct which does present as genuinely alarming and disturbing, in its context, to any reasonable person…
On 1-2 June, Ray Bradford, Janet Fenton and Gillian Lawrence defended themselves against the charge of criminal trespass on a protected nuclear site, under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA), arising out of the Trident Ploughshares Big Blockade in February 2010.
The judge apparently paid attention to the defendants’ human rights and international humanitarian law arguments. All three were sentenced to only three months’ conditional discharge and costs of only £50 each…
Five defendants arrested at the Devonport blockade in November 2010 went free after appearing before Plymouth magistrates on 9-10 June.
Three Scottish defendants, who had locked-on across the gate to the dock where Trident nuclear submarines are serviced, had been charged with “obstruction of a constable”. The prosecution tried to change this at the hearing to “obstruction of the highway”. The District Judge dismissed the cases because “obstruction of the highway” was a summary…
Climate activists are collecting funds to cover the E30,000 court costs of Tannie Nyboe and Stine Gry Jonassen, who on 1 June were sentenced by the Danish high court to two months in prison (plus two months suspended) for their involvement in nonviolent civil disobedience on 16 December 2009 during the failed climate negotiations in Copenhagen. The main evidence against Tannie and Stine, Danish spokespeople for the global network Climate Justice Action, was that they allegedly shouted “push…
Peace activist and PN columnist Maya Evans won a judicial review at the high court on 12 May, overturning a new rule introduced last year ending legal aid for applicants who would not directly benefit from their claims. Maya had already successfully challenged the Ministry of Defence’s policy of handing over detainees in Afghanistan to the local police.
Maya, from the peace group Justice Not Vengeance, said: “The Ministry of Defence has tried to cut off funding for politically…
Late news: On 5 April, long-time peace activist Lindis Percy was found “not guilty” of trespass at the US air force base at Mildenhall, Suffolk, under section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act. The case dated back to her hour-long tour of Mildenhall on 30 October 2009, after being permitted to enter by a US guard, Kyler Sherman Brown, who now denies ever seeing Lindis. Crucial CCTV footage has mysteriously gone “missing”. The district judge at Bury St Edmunds magistrates’…
On 14 April, the high court ruled that police acted illegally when they cordoned (“kettled”) Climate Camp protesters in Bishopsgate, London, at the G20 protest on 1 April 2009. The case was brought by two people who were among 5,000 kettled by police for five hours.
The judgment does not rule the tactic of kettling illegal, but places limits on its use, concluding that: “The police may only take such preventive action as a last resort catering for situations about to descend into…
On 29 March, five “Disarm Now Plowshares” peace activists received jail sentences at Tacoma federal courthouse, Washington state, USA. Anne Montgomery, Bill Bichsel, Lynne Greenwald, Steve Kelly and Susan Crane (aged from 60 to 83), were ordered to pay $5,300 each, as well as between six and 15 months in prison, plus a year’s supervised release. The five were arrested inside the US naval base Kitsap-Bangor in Washington state in November 2009. They had cut through fences around the Trident…
In the aftermath of the Mark Kennedy affair, the director of public prosecutions has written to 20 environmental activists recommending that they appeal against criminal convictions as police suppressed potentially crucial evidence from Kennedy, an undercover police officer. The 20 were among 114 activists arrested in April 2009 while planning an action at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station.
