18/9/07
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
(printed in the Guardian and the Times 14/9/07)
Today we the undersigned will stand trial or the "crime" of attending an "unauthorised" peace camp in Parliament Square, held to mark the second anniversary of the November 2004 US/UK assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
That attack killed hundreds of civilians and left thousands more homeless. US forces used white phosphorus - a substance that burns down to the bone - as a weapon.
Moreover, Fallujah was just the tip of the iceberg: in October 2006 a peer-reviewed survey published in the Lancet estimated that 186,000 civilians had been killed in Iraq by US/UK forces since the start of the 2003 invasion.
Recent government spin has suggested that Gordon Brown is keen to overturn the legislation under which we were arrested or reported (the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act) and allow activists to protest against the war unimpeded.
The reality is that those of us who have sought to highlight atrocities in Iraq have repeatedly been prosecuted by the courts. It is not we who are the "serious and organised" criminals, but the politicians who have perpetrated this brutal, illegal war.
Brian Barlow, Steve Barnes, Genny Bove, Rob Clohesey and David King
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
(printed in Morning Star 19/9/07)
I was one of the five defendants tried on Friday for a "serious organised crime" - remembering British soldiers killed in Iraq by reading out their names in Whitehall during a peaceful event last October to mark the anniversary of the UK/US assault on Fallujah in Nov. 2004.
In court we submitted that:
(a) the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) is incompatible with human rights law because the wide discretionary power it gives police to restrict our freedom of expression does not have appropriate safeguards against abuse in the form of clear guidance and procedures.
(b) the case should not have been brought by the Crown Prosecution Service because it was not "needed in the public interest", would not "reduce crime or the fear of crime", nor "provide value for money" (see www.cps.gov.uk).
Despite these submissions the trial was allowed to go ahead, whereupon the Crown amply proved our second point and lent weight to our first by presenting a prosecution that was ill-prepared and shambolic, which failed to provide evidence that there was a case to answer and demonstrated that the enforcement of SOCPA legislation is problematic and ultimately unworkable.
All charges were dismissed, but not before four hours of court time had been wasted, and a "high-ranking police officer" had been called away from his duties in a desperate attempt to bolster the Crown's failing case.
Bringing this prosecution must have been costly and would have been even more so had we not represented ourselves in court and agreed not to call all the police witnesses to give evidence.
Public funds - our taxes - are being squandered by the CPS bringing political prosecutions against peaceful people under SOCPA. I call on Gordon Brown to take steps to repeal this unjust Act of Parliament and to restore our proper right to freedom of expression.
Genny Bove
Moss
Wrexham