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Downing Street: First Arrest Of 'Organiser' Under New SOCA Laws Looms

Milan Rai, Justice Not Vengeance | 23.10.2005 15:46 | Anti-militarism | Repression | London | South Coast

Over a dozen people have been arrested so far for *participating* in unauthorised demonstrations in the vicinity of Parliament. Now the police are promising to carry out the first arrest of an *organiser* under the new SOCA laws - on Tuesday 25 October.

At 9am on Tuesday 25 October, Justice Not Vengeance plans to hold an unauthorised bell-ringing ceremony opposite Downing Street to mark 100,000 deaths in Iraq since the invasion, despite a police threat to arrest organiser Milan Rai under the new SOCA laws.

SOCA
This would be the first arrest of an *organiser* under the new legislation, which bans unauthorised demonstrations in the vicinity of Parliament.

The maximum penalty for being a *participant* in an unauthorised demo is 1000 pounds sterling, while the maximum penalty for an *organiser* (according to the police) is up to 51 weeks imprisonment.

As far as we know, 17 people have been arrested as 'participants' in unauthorised demos, and all but one have been charged so far (source: Voices in the Wilderness UK).

100,000 RINGS
This protest is part of a JNV-co-sponsored international project entitled '100,000 Rings for the people of Iraq' .

So far we have rung a hand bell 250 times in the middle of Brighton. On Monday we plan to ring the bell another 250 times outside Northwood, in North London, the military base commanding British forces in Iraq.

We'll keep you posted.

Milan Rai, Justice Not Vengeance
- e-mail: info [at] j-n-v [dot] org
- Homepage: http://www.j-n-v.org

Comments

Display the following 5 comments

  1. Solidarity — activefist
  2. total solidarity — rikki
  3. Arrested — Milan Rai
  4. solid-arity — Les (Vine and Fig Planter)
  5. well done! — Sam