Prestwick Citizen Inspectors Acquitted
Slarti | 03.12.2006 14:56 | Anti-militarism
On Friday five people, who in August along with 12 others carried out inspections of Prestwick Airport to look for evidence of US munitions bound for Israel for use the Lebanon conflict, were acquitted of all charges against them at Ayr Sheriff Court.
Ludwig Appeltans (35) from Belgium, Richard McKean (38) from Glasgow, Joe McLoughlin (35) from Perth, Pippa Robertson (21) from Edinburgh and Anna-Linnéa Rundberg (26) from the Åland Islands in Finland, were in the airport grounds on the night of the 6th and 7th August for around 40 minutes before being apprehended. They went on board a USAF C130 Hercules aircraft and examined a Polar Air plane.
At the conclusion of the Crown case Sheriff Montgomery accepted a plea of No Case to Answer from the defence in regard to one charge, that they had been on board an aircraft without the owner’s permission. The defence pointed out that the Crown had failed to lead evidence of sufficient standard that they had no permission. The Crown also abandoned the other two charges, related to being on the airfield and alleged damage to a fence and a door handle.
Anna-Linnéa said: "I am delighted that this is not hanging over me any more. As was shown today, the courts can be good at upholding the technical essentials of a fair trial but we look forward to the day when they will really do their job properly and uphold international law. After all, that’s what our inspection was all about - the UK’s collusion in illegal arms shipments."
Trial dates have not been set for two other groups of Prestwick inspectors. One group has been issued with revised charges and has a preliminary diet in December. The other group is waiting for notification of revised charges.
At the conclusion of the Crown case Sheriff Montgomery accepted a plea of No Case to Answer from the defence in regard to one charge, that they had been on board an aircraft without the owner’s permission. The defence pointed out that the Crown had failed to lead evidence of sufficient standard that they had no permission. The Crown also abandoned the other two charges, related to being on the airfield and alleged damage to a fence and a door handle.
Anna-Linnéa said: "I am delighted that this is not hanging over me any more. As was shown today, the courts can be good at upholding the technical essentials of a fair trial but we look forward to the day when they will really do their job properly and uphold international law. After all, that’s what our inspection was all about - the UK’s collusion in illegal arms shipments."
Trial dates have not been set for two other groups of Prestwick inspectors. One group has been issued with revised charges and has a preliminary diet in December. The other group is waiting for notification of revised charges.
Slarti
Homepage:
http://www.tridentploughshares.org
Additions
Pure dead "not guilty!"
08.12.2006 07:28
December the first was a strange day indeed. My solicitor told me more or less that I had no hope hell's chance of a defence. But, we had agreed as a group that we were going to plead "not guilty" and I was sticking to it. Besides, I was missing the superb microwaved PPP sausage served on a bed of cardboard... plus I was hoping to have a valid excuse to dodge X-mas.
Moreover, when hearing we had a Glaswegian-Lebanese witness to testify to court on how the Israelis bombed and killed his mum, I felt morally obliged not to change my plea; when the Procurator Fiscal (Crown Prosecuter) offered a "deal" where two of the charges would be dropped and Pippa would be free, we all gained a certain "fuck you!" stoicism.
The trial went off half-cocked and was adjurned until the other three cases were dealt with; we all felt that the Sherrif was a grumpy old git who'd roast us alive.
When it finally got underway, however, we found Sherrif Montgomery to be actually very agreeable, constructively directing A-L who was representing herself, and sticking a boot squarely up the pitifully prepared PF's arse.
To describe the two prosecution eyewitnesses as being to truthful testimony as Genghis Khan was to town planning would be defamatory, since Khan was at least good at sacking and razing.
Apart from the blatantly rehearsed set pieces where they lied about one of us NOT being assaulted, we had the bizarre assertion that we posed as UN Staff, that WE were aggressive. The most pitiful mistruth and sideways character attack was the assertion that our action "had held up humanitarian flights to [Lebanon]" I used the brackets because in the witness's police statement he says "Lebanon" and in court he said "Israel" and under cross examination he really couldn't make his mind up at all- should've rehearsed that script better! A-L put the lame dog down by informing him that there was in fact an air & sea blockade on the Lebanese when we entered the airport.
During one particularly laborious point in 'Laurel & Hardy fit up Activists', the Sherrif stared at the ceiling, yawned loudly and proclaimed beseechingly to the heavens "Oh... my... GOD!".
The very sad thing about this whole escpade is that we didn't seem to stop a single bomb getting to Israel since the flights were simply diverted. The Scottish Crown Office has decided not to prosecute Kalita Air for reasons which it won't divulge ("for public interests" hahahaha!")
It was in a sense a shame that we got off due to the letter of the law rather than by the fact we were not guilty because we were acting to prevent war crimes, but hey...!
I'd like to say more, positive things, but there are two more trials pending...
But a short "Gerrit up yeez!" will suffice for now.
Moreover, when hearing we had a Glaswegian-Lebanese witness to testify to court on how the Israelis bombed and killed his mum, I felt morally obliged not to change my plea; when the Procurator Fiscal (Crown Prosecuter) offered a "deal" where two of the charges would be dropped and Pippa would be free, we all gained a certain "fuck you!" stoicism.
The trial went off half-cocked and was adjurned until the other three cases were dealt with; we all felt that the Sherrif was a grumpy old git who'd roast us alive.
When it finally got underway, however, we found Sherrif Montgomery to be actually very agreeable, constructively directing A-L who was representing herself, and sticking a boot squarely up the pitifully prepared PF's arse.
To describe the two prosecution eyewitnesses as being to truthful testimony as Genghis Khan was to town planning would be defamatory, since Khan was at least good at sacking and razing.
Apart from the blatantly rehearsed set pieces where they lied about one of us NOT being assaulted, we had the bizarre assertion that we posed as UN Staff, that WE were aggressive. The most pitiful mistruth and sideways character attack was the assertion that our action "had held up humanitarian flights to [Lebanon]" I used the brackets because in the witness's police statement he says "Lebanon" and in court he said "Israel" and under cross examination he really couldn't make his mind up at all- should've rehearsed that script better! A-L put the lame dog down by informing him that there was in fact an air & sea blockade on the Lebanese when we entered the airport.
During one particularly laborious point in 'Laurel & Hardy fit up Activists', the Sherrif stared at the ceiling, yawned loudly and proclaimed beseechingly to the heavens "Oh... my... GOD!".
The very sad thing about this whole escpade is that we didn't seem to stop a single bomb getting to Israel since the flights were simply diverted. The Scottish Crown Office has decided not to prosecute Kalita Air for reasons which it won't divulge ("for public interests" hahahaha!")
It was in a sense a shame that we got off due to the letter of the law rather than by the fact we were not guilty because we were acting to prevent war crimes, but hey...!
I'd like to say more, positive things, but there are two more trials pending...
But a short "Gerrit up yeez!" will suffice for now.
Keith Harris & Orville
Comments
Display the following comment