Quaker arrested on peace protest
Sam Walton was detained when entering BAE Systems' Warton site
A London Friend was arrested at a BAE site in Lancashire on 29 January.
Sam Walton, of Streatham and Brixton Meeting, who works at Friends House was acting in a personal capacity, was detained with Dan Woodhouse, a Methodist minister, when they entered BAE Systems’ Warton site in order to disarm warplanes bound for Saudi Arabia. The two peace campaigners were taken into custody in Blackpool. They were released on bail on 30 January, pending charges.
They acted to try to prevent BAE’s delivery of fighter jets to the Saudi government, exactly twenty-one years after three women entered the same airbase to disarm a plane being sent to Indonesia to be used in the genocide in East Timor. In a statement, the two activists said: ‘BAE security found us just metres from war planes bound for Saudi Arabia. We’re gutted that we couldn’t disarm a plane and stop it being used to carry out airstrikes in Yemen. We could have saved lives by preventing Saudi war crimes in Yemen.
‘We did not take these steps lightly, but we have no other option. We have been active in opposing the arms trade to Saudi Arabia for years, and in the face of wilful government denial that there is a problem with arming Saudi, including willingness to suspend our own due process of law, and complete unwillingness to consider stopping arming Saudi Arabia, we must take this action.’
