G8 protester to prosecute Swiss police

British activist Martin Shaw was badly injured when a rope suspending him from a bridge was cut. Now he wants the officer he blames put on trial

Stuart Millar and Alison Langley
Monday June 9, 2003
The Guardian

A British activist who fell 20 metres (65ft) from a motorway bridge during the protests against globalisation at the G8 summit last week intends to bring criminal charges against the Swiss police officer he blames for his fall.

Martin Shaw, 39, from west London, was hanging from a rope during a blockade of the bridge over the river Aubonne, near Lausanne, when the policeman cut the rope. He fell into the shallow rock-strewn river, fracturing two vertebrae and his pelvis and shattering his left ankle and foot.

Speaking for the first time about his ordeal, Mr Shaw, who remains in serious condition in hospital in Lausanne, said: "The plan was to create a non-violent road blockade, but that goes on the assumption that the police and their governments care more about human life than traffic.

"There seems to be a desire from the Swiss government to forget about this whole event. No charges have been brought against the police who cut the rope or those who set up the operation, but we are working to mount a legal case against the police and the Swiss government."

Mr Shaw, a veteran direct-action protester, and other activists are consulting lawyers about the charges they can bring. Among the options being considered are attempted murder, grievous bodily harm and endangering life.

An examining magistrate, Jean-Marie Ruede, is inquiring into the incident and has interviewed Mr Shaw and the officer involved.

The chief magistrate for Lausanne, Jacques Antenen, said that so far no evidence had been found to suggest that the officer, who had been drafted in from the German-speaking part of Switzerland, knew that there were people suspended from the rope.

The officer told the magistrate that he did not understand the warnings from protesters on the bridge because they were shouted in French and English.

But protesters involved in the blockade say it would have been impossible for the officer not to know that there were people on the rope.

The protest began in the early hours of last Sunday when a group of activists went to the bridge to prevent G8 delegates travelling from Geneva airport to Lausanne, where ferries were to take them across Lake Geneva to the summit in the French town of Evian.

At around 10.30am they received a mobile phone message telling them that the G8 convoy was on its way, and they swung into action.

To make it impossible for cars to pass, a thick climbing rope marked along its length with bright orange and silver ribbons was stretched across all six lanes and wound around the crash barriers.

Mr Shaw, on the ground below the bridge, attached himself to one end and hoisted himself up while a female protester on the other end of the rope abseiled down from the other side of the bridge, so that they would counterbalance one another.

Both experienced climbers, they were using rope guards to prevent fraying and each was helped by two assistants.

On the road about 10 activists unfurled three banners at the Geneva end of the bridge. One said: "Vous arrêtez ici ou vous tuez deux personnes." (Stop here or you will kill two people.)

As the traffic built up the tempers of some motorists began to fray. One car tried to drive through the rope and stopped only when activists jumped on its bonnet.

Unlike other G8 protests, which were marred by clashes between anarchist "ultras" and the police, the bridge blockade was entirely peaceful.

When the police arrived the protesters repeatedly explained that there were people suspended from the rope. At least three policemen looked over the side. Mr Shaw said they looked straight at him and he waved up at them.

A video shot by one of the activists shows what happened next. As more police arrived and the traffic jam continued to grow, some officers lifted up the rope to allow cars to pass through. Suddenly the rope went slack, and some of the protesters began to scream.

"I was just asking the rope assistant why the rope was moving from above when I felt it get cut," Mr Shaw said.

"All through the fall I was thinking 'Oh my God, they cut the fucking rope'. I knew that was the only reason I could be falling because of the precautions we had taken. It was such an unfathomable possibility that my reaction was just astonished acknowledgement."

"I remember hitting the ground. I landed more or less feet first on my left side. My head hit in the deepest pool of the very shallow creek, which probably saved my life.

"I was chest down, trying to hold my head and upper body out of the water with my hands, and completely entangled in the rope."

As some activists rushed to help him, the others desperately held on to the rope to prevent the female protester - who has asked not to be named - falling. She was eventually rescued and taken to hospital suffering from shock.

Mr Shaw, who does not have private medical insurance, is likely to be repatriated to Barcelona, where he now lives. He and five others have been charged with obstructing traffic, which carries a six months jail sentence.