ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS VOW TO FIGHT INJUNCTION

SMASH EDO

Contacts

Press Inquiries: Andrew or Ceri 0787 5708873

www.smashedo.bpec.org

LATEST PRESS RELEASE
12th April 2005

EMBARGO: For Immediate Release

ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS VOW TO FIGHT INJUNCTION

On Thursday 24th March SMASH EDO, the defunct BOMBS OUT OF BRIGHTON and number of named individuals were served with a High Court summons under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 by solicitors representing EDO/MBM Technology Ltd a Brighton based arms manufacturer.

The proposed injunction will restrict protest outside the bomb manufacturer’s headquarters to two and a half hours on a Thursday, providing there are less than ten protestors and they make no amplified noise.

Nine individuals named on the injunction and one other representing the campaign are contesting both the evidence and the legal power of the injunction.

The defendants are seeking an adjournment as they have only had just under three weeks to examine evidence that it has taken EDO/MBM and their solicitors a year to accumulate. Despite this the evidence mainly consists of hearsay and spurious connections to the animal rights movement, which has been used to attack the campaign by selective release to sections of the press.

Lorna Marcham, one of those who will be contesting the injunction “This injunction coupled with a smear campaign is a clear attempt to restrict our right to freedom of speech and assembly. Surely the irony of a bomb-maker complaining about noise, harassment and damage to buildings cannot be lost on anyone”.

Ceri Gibbons, spokesman for SMASH EDO: “This injunction is totally out of proportion. It essentaily bans an entire British city from peaceful anti-war protest while those it seeks to protect from 'harrassment' are allowed to continue to develop bomb dropping technologies that have been used in an illegal and immoral war and occupation of Iraq which most of the British public opposed .”

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The campaign is appealing for everyone in the wider peace movement as well as anyone who cares about freedom of speech to join them on:

WEDNESDAY 13TH APRIL 2005

2pm DEMONSTRATION FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ASSEMBLY OUTSIDE EDO/MBMs FACTORY ON HOME FARM ROAD, BRIGHTON.

5.30pm SUPPORTERS RALLY: CHURCHILL SQUARE Brighton Town centre

AND

THURSDAY 14TH APRIL 2005.

DAY OF HIGH COURT INJUNCTION HEARING.

9:30 am RALLY AND PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE STEPS OF THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE , THE STRAND, LONDON. FURTHER PRESS CONFERENCE TO BE ANNOUNCED DEPENDING ON SITUATION

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Contacts

Press Inquiries: Andrew or Ceri 0787 5708873

www.smashedo.bpec.org

Notes for Journalists

Lawson-Cruttenden & Co, a solicitors firm have been instrumental in the development of the Protection of Harassment Act 1997 from a measure designed to safeguard individuals to a corporate charter to make inconvenient protest illegal. They have pioneered the use of injunctions to create large “exclusion zones” enforced by police. They have secured numerous injunctions against anti-vivisection protestors.

EDO/MBM Technologies Ltd are a UK subsidiary of large U.S arms conglomerate EDO Corp, which was recently named No. 10 in the Forbes list of 100 fastest growing companies. EDO Corp’s board of directors includes Sir Robert Walmsley, the longest serving Chief of Defence Procurement for the MOD. He is also currently the Chairman of EDO (UK) the parent company of EDO MBM Technologies Ltd, as well as being on the Board of Directors of General Dynamics, an even larger US arms company.