Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

a blow to freedom - guilty verdict in SOCPA case in court today

rikki | 07.12.2005 18:02 | Free Spaces | Repression | London

brian haw's one man protest outside westminster embarassed the warmongers inside. it seemed easier to try to stop protest against the war than to stop the greed that led to war, so they brought in new legislation. he's still there, but today the first guilty verdict was passed on an 'unauthorised protest' that comprised just two people performing a remembrance ceremony opposite downing street.

bell-ringing and supporters outside the court
bell-ringing and supporters outside the court

brian haw - parliament square peace protestor
brian haw - parliament square peace protestor

maya evans, the defendant
maya evans, the defendant

milan rai, possibly facing a more serious charge
milan rai, possibly facing a more serious charge

brian haw - the only man allowed to protest near parliament
brian haw - the only man allowed to protest near parliament

maya interviewed for 'london today'
maya interviewed for 'london today'

urm, yes mr. blair, indeed
urm, yes mr. blair, indeed


section 132 of the 'serious organised crime and police act' (SOCPA) bans unauthorised demonstration in the designated area (within around 1km of parliament). the new law came into force on 1st august this year and legislates that, in order to comply, one must give police seven days notice of any demonstration within the area, with details of the organisers, numbers expected, likely actions, time, place and date etc. the police may then use this information to apply conditions including numbers, length of protest, whether banners are allowed, whether any sound amplification is allowed (usually not), and so on.

the law was rushed through and badly framed, and the high court has since declared that brian haw's protest (which has been going on night and day for four years) started before the law came into effect, and that it cannot be applied to him retrospectively. farcically then, the one person that they wanted to get rid of, is now the ONLY person in the whole of britain who does not need to gain state authorisation to protest within 1 km of parliament.

milan rai (of campaigning group justice not vengeance www.j.n.v.org) was planning to commemorate the anniversary of the lancet report that showed that 100, 000 iraqis had been killed in the invasion up to september 2004. the ceremony involved tolling a bell and reading out the names of those known to have died (both iraqis and also british soldiers). because of length of time needed, the ceremony was split into four parts, starting in brighton, then at northwood military base north of london, then at downing street, and finally in hastings.

milan called the events and operations office at charing cross station in advance to check whether any demos were planned for the morning of the 25th october, and to notify them the time he was planning the ceremony, the likely number of attendees (less than 5), and an outline of the nature of the event. due to human rights implications, and knowing of the ongoing fight against this undemocratic and dangerous new law, he decided not to comply with the police request to fill in their application form. he was warned that the demo would be 'unauthorised' and that he would be liable for arrest.

the first two parts of the ceremony passed uneventfully, although at northwood, police asked participants to move across the road and they complied.

at 9 am on the 25th, a drizzly tuesday morning, milan was greeted opposite downing street by police constable paul mcnally accompanied by two vans, a sergeant, and 11 other officers. he was told that there would be 'zero tolerance' and that if he did not move in five minutes he would be arrested.

not doubting this, milan left to warn the other participant in the ceremony that this was the case, and to get the bells to a safe place so that they could be used later in hastings. that other participant was maya evans who appeared in court today.

once the bells were safe, the two of them returned to the protest pen opposite downing street, and quietly started reading out the names of the dead. they each had a cardboard banner, and were also wearing 'a4' sized banners round their necks. a few passers-by took notice, but the peaceful protest did not attract a crowd, did not cause any obstruction, and remained calm and dignified. however, police once again warned both participants that they would be liable to arrest, and ten minutes later at 9.42am, they were taken to charing cross station where maya was charged and released on bail mid-afternoon. milan is still awaiting to hear whether he will be charged and whether that charge may be the more serious one of 'organising an unauthorised demonstration' which can lead to imprisonment for up to 51 weeks.

maya's case was heard at bow streets magistrates' court this morning and her supporters there included brian haw, milan rai, people from 'justice not vengeance', people from the anti-SOCPA group 'people in common', friends, family, and reporters. outside the court, the names of iraqi dead were read out along with bell-ringing in a re-enactment of the 'illegal' protest.

maya appeared in front of a magistrate at court 3, where she told the court that while not disputing the facts of the case, she did not recognise the validity of a law that restricted her in any way from performing this important act. it was important to perform this ceremony near the women's war memorial, near the cenotaph, and near tony blair's residence. she wanted to raise awareness of iraqi mortalities especially nearing the anniversary of the siege at fallujah where 700 were killed including 550 civilian women and children.

the defence argued that in order to convict, the prosecution would have to show that in a democratic society it was necessary to infringe maya's human rights (specifically article 10 - freedom of expression, and article 11 - freedom of assembly). the defending solicitor, mr. mackenzie, pointed out that the SOCPA (in section 134) set out some reasons for its existence: to prevent hindrance to persons attending the palace of westminster; to prevent hindrance to the operation of parliament; and to prevent serious public disorder, security threats etc. it was clear that none of this could possibly apply to milan and maya's ceremony. it was also important to show, that given the democratic right in the rest of the country to demonstrate, that there is something so special about the whole of the rather wide designated area that even such a small static protest could require authorisation and risk criminalisation.

the human rights act does allow for restrictions on protest in terms of prevention of public disorder, safety, and so on, but the defence argued that since milan had been in touch with the police and they were aware of the protest, its nature and intention, the requirement for authorisation and the subsequent criminalisation were wholly unnecessary and disproportionate.

after a brief recess, the magistrate emerged at 12.30 to give the verdict. she pointed out that there was no dispute over the facts of the case, and noted that it is not open to a magistrate to directly challenge a law on human rights or any other basis - that would be for a higher court. she did however agree that the interpretation of existing legislation must be compatible with the human rights act. section 132 is itself unambiguous, but it is necessary to read in a human rights proviso that no offence is committed unless it is shown that it was necessary in a democratic society to impose restrictions in order to avoid hindrance, disorder etc. she agreed that if authorisation had been applied for, then no conditions were likely, but then went on to conclude that the balance between public order issues and the human rights act is for parliament to decide, and that parliament had framed this legislation after consideration in an unambiguous way. therefore in her view it was not necessary to read any proviso into section 132, it should be given its natural meaning, and thus, maya evans had committed the offence under that section.

due to the highly relevant mitigating circumstances (that the protest was small, peaceful and orderly, and that maya had co-operated fully with the arrest procedure) the magistrate imposed a penalty of a 12 month conditional discharge. the prosecution requested £200 costs, and the magistrate halved this to £100 payable at £5pw and starting within 28 days.

outside the court maya gave interviews to the media including a live one to itn 'london today' news. it is likely that the verdict will be challenged and appeal made to a higher court.

today's court case was the very first brought under the SOCPA, although maya's was one of the most recent arrests. at least 20 others are thought to be standing trial in the new year (although police at one time confirmed 27 arrests in all), and milan rai is still waiting for confirmation whether he may stand trial for the more serious offence as 'organiser'. it's possible the crown prosecution service were waiting for today's outcome before making that decision.

for footage of the remembrance ceremony on the 25th october, see www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/10/326409.html (see comments there for the link to working version of smaller format video)

and for more information about the ongoing challenge to this law, check out www.peopleincommon.org

rikki

Additions

Protest Outside Scottish Parliament

07.12.2005 19:46

Ten people have been fined £300 each for a protest outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Apparently they should have been in the "Protest Zone" at the back of the car park which is not visible from the MSPs entrance. Form more info see:
 http://www.tridentploughshares.org/article1381

plunk
mail e-mail: plunk@hushmail.com


Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. daily mail front page!! i'm confused now — rikki
  2. Appeal — fredrico
  3. I'm confused! — Cartman
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech