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.

Support the Blackmail 3: Against Animal Testing & State Repression!

Blackmail 3 | 14.02.2014 13:37 | SHAC | Animal Liberation | Repression | Social Struggles

The trial of Debbie Vincent, the first of the 'Blackmail 3' defendants, is due to start this Monday 17th at Winchester Crown Court. Please support her and the other defendants!



The trial of Debbie Vincent will begin on Monday 17th February at Winchester Crown Court after being adjourned on Wednesday. Ms. Vincent is facing charges of 'conspiracy to blackmail' over her involvement in the campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences, the controversial animal testing laboratory. She, and two others, are being prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service in what supporters are calling the 'Blackmail 3' case.

Debbie Vincent was arrested on 6th July 2012 after Police raided her home in London. Simultaneous raids also took place at several addresses in Amsterdam resulting in two arrests. All three people were arrested on suspicion of 'conspiracy to blackmail' relating to the campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences. Ms. Vincent was accused of committing this between 2001-2011 and the two people in Holland between November 2008-December 2010. During the raids, police forced entry into a shared office space, removing computers, electronic devices and paperwork belonging to a variety of campaign groups. This is on top of a huge amount of items taken from the suspects' homes, which included cameras, printers, storage devices and several laptops.

“What we are seeing is a coordinated campaign against animal rights activists in an effort to silence dissent,” said Adrian Shaw of the Blackmail 3 Support Campaign, “this is the third conspiracy to blackmail trial in the UK involving people accused of campaigning against Huntingdon Life Sciences. This charge has been deliberately used against campaigners due to its good conviction rate and because it carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.”

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), the campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences, was started in 1997 after an expose by British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) was broadcast on Channel 4. The undercover documentary, “It's A Dog's Life”, showed serious breaches of animal-protection laws, including a beagle puppy being repeatedly punched in the face and animals being taunted by members of staff. The laboratory has been exposed several times since then, uncovering a string of animal abuse, such as: workers performing autopsies on animals while they were still alive; staff operating while under the influence of drugs; and controversial xenotransplantations which involve the transplantation of live organs between animals of different species.

“This is the second time I have faced these spurious charges over the past seven years. I am innocent, and look forward to having my day in court and fighting these charges.”, said Debbie Vincent, “I am very proud to have campaigned on these pressing public issues that effects animals, humans and the environment. I believe and continue to believe that the deliberate infliction of pain and suffering upon animals by humans being whether for commercial gain, scientific or other research, is morally wrong.”

The court case begins Monday and is expected to last up to six weeks. The defence is expected to argue that Ms. Vincent was not party to any conspiracy such as is alleged and that at all times it was her aim to lawfully prevent Huntingdon Life Sciences from engaging in acts of cruelty to animals for financial gain. They will argue that she believed that her own activities were reasonable given the circumstances.

For more information about the case, HLS and the defendants see:  http://blackmail3.org

We are asking people to send in photos and messages of support for Debbie, Pru and Sven. You can read the previous messages here:  http://blackmail3.org/support.html. The call out for solidarity statements (via the Blackmail 3 Facebook:  http://facebook.com/blackmail3.org) follows:

"We are calling on all members of the international movement to show solidarity with the Blackmail 3! Wednesday 12th February will mark the beginning of the first of the Blackmail 3 trails. The case is the culmination of a coordinated campaign against animal liberation activists who are fighting to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences, the world's third largest animal testing laboratory.

Three activists were arrested on the morning of 6th July 2012 during police raids in Amsterdam and London and charged with “conspiracy to blackmail”. The two people from Amsterdam were arrested on a European arrest warrant, and after a week in prison were released on strict bail conditions, having surrendered their passports. They now await extradition to the UK. The third defendant, in London, was bailed the following evening and also has many restrictive bail conditions.

This case is just the latest in a long list of attempts by the authorities to silence dissent, we must stand united in the face of repression and show them that we will not be deterred!

Send us your messages of solidarity to the Blackmail 3! Photos or statements can be sent to us via Facebook or the website ( http://blackmail3.org/). Show the Blackmail 3 that you support them in whatever way you can!"

Blackmail 3
- e-mail: info@blackmail3.org
- Homepage: http://blackmail3.org

Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. HLS is struggling — anon
  2. Good luck Deb — Steve & Mary Magee
  3. Solidarity demo in London — Activist
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