Watching 2,000 upstanding citizens, most of them elderly and many infirm, hustled through this mass-injustice process will be a defining moment in the U.K.’s headlong slide into fascism.
London’s Parliament Square on Sept. 6, during the mass arrest of protesters, many of them elderly, against the proscription of the direct-action group Palestine Action. (Alisdaire Hickson, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
By Craig Murray
CraigMurray.org.uk
Those charged with terrorism for supporting Palestine Action will have no jury in trials limited to 36 minutes each, with prison sentences up to six months. These are the plans for Starmer Courts for mass trials of anti-Genocide protestors.
The plans are devised by Justice Michael Snow. He is the epitome of judicial prejudice. When Julian Assange appeared before Snow in the first hearing after being dragged from the Embassy, Snow called Assange a “narcissist” even though Assange had said nothing but to confirm his name, and no evidence had been led.
Snow has now decreed that those 2,000 people charged under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act with supporting Palestine Action, will be tried in batches of five at the rate of ten people a day – giving 36 court minutes for each defendant. This is a farce, a spectacle of mass show trial. The 36 minutes includes both prosecution and defence cases and cross-examination.
At a scheduling hearing last week, one of the accused, 72-year-old Deborah Wilde, objected that these trials would be far too short to present a proper defence.
Snow snapped back “I’m satisfied that the time is sufficient. I am not going to give more time. Your only remedy is the High Court.”
As I am sure Snow realises, ordinary people cannot afford to go to the High Court. The worrying thing is that the trials will be held before judges including the appalling Snow, with no jury.
Here is the relevant part of Section 13 of the Terrorism Act.
Perhaps the most astonishing thing about this draconian legislation is that arousing suspicion is actually the offence. It does not matter if the suspicion turns out to be well-grounded or not. The suspicion could be totally wrong, but if you aroused the suspicion on “reasonable grounds” in a policeman’s head, you are guilty.
Suspicion Is Enough
It is an offence of strict liability. Your intent is not considered; you may have been most concerned to stop a genocide, or to oppose the destruction of free speech. Judge Snow and his ilk will not care. They only want to know if some half-educated cop suspected you of supporting a terrorist organisation. There is no jury to whom you can explain your actions — and which would be highly likely to sympathise.
I have seen it, as an offence of strict liability, likened to possession of Class A drugs. But actually it isn’t. The correct analogy would be a crime where the offence was arousing a suspicion you possessed Class A drugs, whether you actually had any or not.
The experience of watching 2,000 upstanding citizens, most of them elderly and many of them infirm, hustled through this slaughterhouse queue of mass justice and into prison, with little opportunity to defend themselves, will be a defining moment in the U.K.’s headlong slide into fascism.
The best available way to fight this ridiculously unjust process which has been directly opposed by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, by Amnesty International and by Liberty, is through the legal challenge to an absurd and oppressive law. This is being done in both England and Scotland, which are separate jurisdictions. I am the “petitioner” in the Scottish case.
There are precedents for different decisions in the different jurisdictions. The Scottish courts found former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament illegal; the English courts, legal. Ultimately the Supreme Court decided in favour of the Scottish courts. It is also possible that Palestine Action should simply operate legally in one jurisdiction and not the other — the law is frequently different in the two countries. The rationale of the legal case is explained here.
Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. His coverage is entirely dependent on reader support. Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
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This article is from CraigMurray.org.uk.
Views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Snow is an appalling traitor. No doubt he enjoys a nice big Friday night dinner.
The experience of watching 2,000 upstanding citizens, most of them elderly and many of them infirm, hustled through this slaughterhouse queue of mass justice and into prison, with little opportunity to defend themselves, will be a defining moment in the U.K.’s headlong slide into Fascism.
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There’s really nothing else to add…
Many of us have condemed the Trump administration for the this same process when used against immigrants in the USA. Logically (if we have) we can not stand by without saying anything when its used here in the UK.
This judge is bringing England back to the times of Dickens, with mass trials of the poor on capital cases. When you are a sociopath serving power, you sleep comfortably at night.
So diligent our wise leaders to shield us from wrongthink.
“Your task is simple. You have set it yourself: to gild the *right*, to blacken the *wrong*. Your task is therefore to make the opposition contemptible; to make the masses understand that opposition is a crime and that the leaders of the opposition are criminal. That is the simple language which the masses understand. If you begin to talk of your complicated motives, you will create confusion amongst them”. Aurthur Koestler – Darkness at noon – 1940.
Simplistic, emotionally driven tribal narratives and stories – are what the general public have been both biologically and culturally determined to believe in and desire. No nuance. No seeking to deeply understand the myriad complexities. No context on the critically important biological (energy / environment / resource) or cultural (familial / societal / historical) determinants – how they shape our lives or how we unconsciously respond to them.
No acceptance that Science has proven that there is no such thing as *free will*. No acknowledgement of the *cause and effect* Universe we inhabit. No true critical thinking, only that which sits within the narrow confines of what is deemed *morally acceptable*. No insightful analysis of precisely why it is that our species once again finds itself on the brink of irrational war.
Nothing but simplistic, emotionally driven tribal narratives and stories that attempt to gild the *right* and *blacken* the wrong.
Given the plethora of simplistic, emotional tribal narratives and stories being promulgated by governments and the media over the latest global conflicts (amongst pretty much everything else), it would appear that Mr. Koestler’s assertion – holds.
The simplistic brinkmanship we are witnessing in relation to these global conflicts is no different to the simplistic brinkmanship we are pursuing against Nature, our dogged insistence that our profligate energy lifestyles are simply not-negotiable, whilst suicidally creating a Global Atmospheric Sauna (GAS), widespread Environmental destruction and biodiversity loss. Whether our penchant for simplistic brinkmanship ends with the pushing of numerous little red nuclear armament buttons or a myriad of uncontrollable atmospheric and environmental tipping points – matters little. Each and every one of us, through our autopilot biologically and culturally determined daily actions, have played our part in ignorantly / unknowingly bringing these and many other consequences to fruition.
The Human World exists in a *deterministic – cause and effect* Universe.
Either we accept and thoroughly understand what that means and how it manifests in our individual lives, or we do not.
Fascism is clearly the new order in the UK.
The only option I see is for King Charles to dismiss Starmer, dissolve Parliament, and force a general election. This would almost certainly bring Nigel Farage from Reform to power as PM, and the King could ‘technically’ instruct him to restore proper democracy, justice, civil rights and freedom of speech.
But sadly, this is extremely unlikely to happen.
What would happen if we all started to wear a watermelon pin? And if asked what it stood for we said we liked watermelons?
This smacks of an earlier era of Star Chamber trials in England and more currently in the U.S. of FISA trials designed to deny true justice and freedom of expression to people and shut them up and away into dank prisons. The beast lives in fear of shadows, devouring anything that moves and destroying healthy dissent that is the lifeblood of any free people. These are dark days, indeed.
Thank you so much for standing strong for justice. May the Scottish rule of law long live!
Thank you Craig, for your ongoing work and reporting.
Many of us have condemed the Trump for the this same process when used against immigrants in the USA. Logically (if we have) we can not stand by and not say anything when its used here in the UK.