Trials & legal cases

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It was back in November sometime when I discovered a phone message from someone at Charing Cross police events department asking me to return their call. Reluctant to spend money on a phone call which I didn’t really want to have, I called the number.

I found myself talking to a rather confused police officer who said they wanted to complete information for their files regarding an unauthorised demonstration I had co-organized back in October, and also the use of a megaphone in the…

On 7 March, I was at Newbury Magistrates' Court, Berkshire, putting Trident nuclear weapons on trial. I was charged with “obstruction of the highway'' for a peaceful sitdown protest outside the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston last July, during the 86-day, 900-mile Footprints for Peace walk from Dublin to London which I completed.

The court heard how I joined three walkers from the US - Liana and Aleta Johannaber from Georgia, and Bernie Meyer (aka “the American Gandhi”)…

The trial of the group known as the Raytheon Nine began in Belfast on 20 May . (Actually, only six of the defendants are in the dock. Three others are currently on remand in the Republic of Ireland on charges relating to dissident republican activity.) The trial began at the Crown Court on 21 May with about 50 people participating in a solidarity demonstration.

The basic facts about the incident at the Raytheon offices in Derry are clear. On 6 August 2006, a group of nine men, part…

19 May sees the opening of a long-delayed trial of nine anti-war protestors charged with criminal damage and affray at a Northern Ireland office of the arms manufacturers Raytheon.

It was on 9 August 2006, as the USA was rushing missiles to Israel to aid its assault on Lebanon, that nine members of the Derry Anti- War Coalition (DAWC) members occupied a Raytheon software development facility and “decommissioned” its computers. Ironically, the software facility had come to Derry/…

On 25 February, the ten East Midlands activists who shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power station in early 2007 were found guilty by Nottingham magistrates court, and fined. (See PN2494.)

The defendants had been allowed to enter a “defence of necessity”, arguing that their action was lawful because of the perilous circumstances caused by CO2 emissions.

The judge said that shutting down a power station was “a step too far”, and that “necessity can easily become simply a…

East Midlands climate change activists who managed to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant for several hours in early 2007 won two significant legal victories in a Nottingham court in January.

In a trial which began at the magistrate's court on 14 January, the 11 activists (some defending themselves) were allowed to put forward an unprecedented legal defence, and to call as a defence witness an earth systems scientist who said the defendants' taking action attempting to make large…

Two graffiti protestors were overwhelmed by a crowd of well-wishers when they arrived for their trial at Edinburgh sheriff court on 9 January. Appalling weather conditions failed to prevent more than a hundred supporters from turning up give their support.

Helen John and Georgia Smith were found guilty of defacing the High Court building in Edinburgh. They used black paint to write “ban cluster bombs” and “£76 billion for genocide” on Remembrance Day 2006.

…

In a ruling that surprised and thrilled defendants and supporters, after a day-long trial on 14 September, a Horseferry Road magistrate dismissed charges against five protesters under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) arising from the 2006 “No More Fallujahs” Parliament Square peace camp (see PN 2480-81).

The charges against Genny Bove, Rob Clohensy, Steve Barnes and Brian Barlow were not supported by the evidence, the magistrate found. David King's charges were…

On 23 August, many anarchists will mark the 80th anniversary of the execution by electric chair of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two working class (male) Italian anarchist immigrants to the United States, whose fate seized the world's attention.

Peace News is marking the anniversary by addressing two of the issues raised by the Sacco and Vanetti case - the situation of immigrants in rich Western societies, and the question of violence in social change. Sacco…

There have been several cases recently under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) mostly connected with last October's “No More Fallujahs” Parliament Square peace camp.

On 18 May, Milan Rai and I were convicted in the same trial of both organising and participating in unauthorised demonstrations near Parliament. We were fined #100 each, with no court costs. Ten other defendants from “No More Fallujahs” went to court on 23 May, just for “participating in an unauthorised…

All the “Fairford Five” cases have now been concluded, with three acquittals and two convictions after six trials and heroic legal efforts by all five peace activists who took direct action against the Iraq war at the US airbase near Fairford, Gloucestershire.

On 30 May, Josh Richards was formally acquitted in a retrial by the Judge at Bristol Crown Court of “attempted arson” to a US B52 bomber at Fairford in March 2003, after the jury failed to reach a verdict, even a majority one…

14 May - This is not a retrial

For the sake of the jury and due process, the event we're attending is not to be referred to as a retrial.
Things do seem oddly familiar though. Are you sure we haven't been here before? Is this a groundhog I see before me?
Things got under way with the prosecuting QC, Mr Blair, treating us to a brief summary of the case against Toby and Phil. He described what they did-- from agreeing (conspiring) to go to Fairford, to cutting the fence and…

As PN went to press, jubilant supporters rang to say that at 4.10 pm, a Bristol jury had found the B52 Two, Phil Pritchard and Toby Olditch (see picture right, outside the courtroom with supporters - Phil has a rose and Toby's on his right) not guilty of conspiring to cause criminal damage.
After coming out of court, Toby told PN, “We'd remained convinced that what we did was the right thing. We're absolutely overjoyed to have this confirmed by the jury.”
Phil…

On 20 April, author Maya Anne Evans and PN editor Milan Rai were called to stand trial at Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court, London, for “contempt of court”.
At an earlier hearing on 10 April, when they were meant to have been tried for alleged offences under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005), the judge had refused to continue with the trial after the pair had refused to give their dates of birth.
Judge Newton sent the activists to the cells for an…