THE PUBLIC IS CLEARLY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH JAILING PEACENIKS FOR TRYING TO STOP WEAPONS SUPPLIES TO A GENOCIDAL REGIME ~ Andy Meinke ~ Woolwich Crown Court is a grim place even if you’re not on trial. No history like the Old Bailey or even a duck pond like Snaresbrook. Just a concrete block on land reclaimed from the marshes, which you have to walk past two prisons to reach and is connected by a tunnel to a third, so those sentenced can’t be rescued from the Serco van by their terrorist accomplices. Small chance of that from the peace campaigners and human rights activists gathered outside yesterday — so all hopes rested with the jury. And Glory Hallelujah did they deliver! Despite being caught red handed with actual paint and on camera smashing up an arms factory with sledgehammers, the twelve good and true found all six activists not guilty of Aggravated Burglary, three not guilty of Violent Disorder, and were unable to reach a majority of at least 9 to 3 on three remaining charges of Violent Disorder, six of Criminal Damage and one of inflicting Grievous Bodily Harm with Intent.  Sadly we anticipate the Crown Prosecution Service, pushed by the Government, will put them all through a retrial. But five of the six have been granted bail, a decision rather forced on Mr Justice Johnson because they’ve served more time in jail than he could give them without ripping up the sentencing guidelines. Sam Corner remains inside as the offence under section 18 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 carries a maximum life sentence. Jury’s do not give reasons for their verdicts and are not allowed to reveal their deliberations. Nor is anyone allowed to carry out any form of research on actual jury decisions, so we cannot tell why they came to these conclusions. But we can guess pretty good, can’t we kids! With due respect to the forensic oratory of the team of barristers from Garden Court Chambers and thorough research by solicitors from Irvine Thavis Natas (ITN), the obvious truth is the great British public is clearly uncomfortable with jailing peaceniks for trying to stop weapons supplies to genocidal regimes. We shouldn’t get carried away, this is a London jury, I wouldn’t have fancied their chances in Canterbury or Stafford where other anti Elbit cases are due. But by making a spurious ‘terrorist connection’ the trial had to be held at the Bailey or Woolwich — and they didn’t choose Woolwich for the greater security. While we’re showing some objectivity: These defendants would still have got a jury trial under the current Levison/Lammie proposals to restrict peoples’ right to chose one. While not firmed up, the suggestion is that only cases with a prospective sentence of three years or more would entitle you to choose a Jury. Aggravated Burglary has a life maximum. In this case where it’s clearly ‘high harm’ and ‘high culpability’, the sentencing guidelines give a starting point of 10 years with a range of 9 to 13 after a contested trial. There are 18 people awaiting three further trials for the same incident, due between April and September. Their lawyers will be scrambling to Court to make bail applications in the aftermath of yesterdays’ verdicts (or failure to reach them). Trial 4 has a preliminary hearing on Friday. There are also the people awaiting trial for pouring paint in plane engines at RAF Brize Norton. Even those advocating resurgent British militarism may consider it cheaper to pay a sentry to guard the Nations’ hardware than to prosecute the scooter-born menace trying to graff it. To misquote Lloyd George, “A fully equipped Judge costs twice as much as a Dreadnought and is nearly as terrible”. It’s a lot to expect more miracles in quick succession, but in a year already filled with horrible shocks we can take hope that we may be seeing the start of a sea change in public opinion, not unlike that towards South Africa in the 1980’s, which will make the British state’s support for the overtly racist Israeli regime untenable. The post Filton acquittals: The start of a sea change appeared first on Freedom News.

AN OUT AND PROUD LEFTIE IS NOW IN THE LEADERSHIP ROLE, BUT WHILE IT’S REFRESHING TO HEAR SOMETHING OTHER THAN FLAT-OUT BIGOTRY, THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC PRESSURES HAVEN’T CHANGED … Mike and Simon get into the weeds of how party politics is shifting, with both mainstream parties seemingly on the path to irrelevancy in their bids to placate the far-right while Reform mops up and the left begins reforming with two bids of its own. But is any of this suggesting a possibility of change, or even a deviation from the seemingly suffocating direction of travel? The post Anarchist News Review: Can Polanski save the Greens? Would that change anything? appeared first on Freedom News.

DEFEND OUR JURIES SAY 1,000 PEOPLE SIGNED UP FOR SATURDAY’S MASS DISOBEDIENCE IN LONDON ~ Scott Harris ~ Defend Our Juries (DOJ) has pledged the “largest ever day of defiance” of the Palestine Action ban this Saturday, after seven key members were arrested in home raids by counter-terrorism police. The arrests, carried out yesterday (2 September) under section 12 of the Terrorism Act, targeted DOJ spokespeople who had hosted public Zoom calls for those signing up to the campaign. Among those detained were lawyer Tim Crosland, care worker David Nixon, and retired engineer Tony Harvey, who has already been charged in Scotland. At the time of a press conference on Wednesday, the group said several of those arrested had been held for more than 24 hours, exceeding the custody time limit. Amnesty International condemned the raids as “a blatant attempt to muzzle freedom of speech” and called for the immediate release of those detained. The organisation has now launched a global campaign urging prosecutors in all three UK jurisdictions to drop charges against protesters. Saturday’s Parliament Square action will see over 1,000 people pledge to risk arrest by holding signs stating: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. Organisers say the number of signatories is already double that of last month’s action, when more than 500 people were detained in London in the Met’s largest mass arrests since the Committee of 100 protests in 1961. Defend Our Juries has advised participants to reject “street bail” and insist on their right to station-based legal advice, predicting that police will not have capacity to process the numbers. The 6 September protests mark the first coordinated defiance of the ban across all three legal systems in the UK. A sit-in is planned at Queen Elizabeth House in Edinburgh, where Scottish prosecutors recently dropped cases against Palestine Action supporters after the Scottish Human Rights Commission warned the arrests risked breaching the law. In Derry, campaigners will also defy the ban, adding pressure on Stormont and Holyrood not to enforce Westminster’s measures. Home secretary Yvette Cooper announced the proscription of Palestine Action in July, the first time a domestic protest group has been banned as a “terrorist” organisation. The move has been widely condemned by rights groups, UN rapporteurs, and Labour members, with polling showing over 70% of the party’s base opposed. A judicial review of the decision is due to be heard in November. The post Mass defiance of Palestine Action ban “will not be silenced” by home raids appeared first on Freedom News.