Friends back climate trial protestors
‘The only sensible conclusion is that they are trying to bully people into silence. It is our responsibility as Quakers to defend the right which the Quakers of the past won for all of us.’
Quakers have spoken out about the arrest and investigations of protestors holding placards outside courts to support the rights of jurors.
Last week Trudi Warner was told by Michael Tomlinson, the solicitor general and a government minister, that she will be prosecuted for contempt of court. Others, including five Quakers, are being investigated for attempting to pervert the course of justice after holding similar placards outside Inner London Crown Court in May. The placards were used after some courts banned defendants from mentioning words including ‘climate change’.
One of those being investigated, Phil Laurie, from Faversham Meeting, said: ‘It is outrageous that we could go to prison for reminding people of something they can read on a marble plaque in the Old Bailey.
‘The only sensible conclusion is that they are trying to bully people into silence. It is our responsibility as Quakers to defend the right which the Quakers of the past won for all of us.’
The right of juries to acquit defendants according to their conscience was first established in 1670 where a jury refused a judge’s direction to find Quaker preachers William Penn and William Mead guilty for holding an unlawful assembly.
Calling the charges ‘worrying’, Paul Parker, recording clerk for Britain Yearly Meeting, said: ‘If jurors are not allowed to hear a defendant’s reason for their action, they are also prevented from using their moral common sense.’
A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said: ‘Contempt of court is a serious matter and the power to issue proceedings is used sparingly… In this case, the law officers considered the deliberate act of doing something that interferes or creates a real risk of interference with the administration of justice, and whether it is in the public interest to begin proceedings for contempt.’
Comments
Please login to add a comment
