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30-Apr-2004

Anti-war defendants argue international law defence

by: Oxford Support Group

Southern England: This morning, 30 April 2004, at 11am in Bristol Crown Court, the preliminary hearing of five peace activists ended. Mr Justice Grigson retired to make his decision and will give his judgement and reasons in the coming weeks (no date set).

The ruling will determine whether the defendants may argue that they were acting with lawful excuse, if they can raise defences of necessity and prevention of crime.

The judgement could set an important legal precedent. Philip Pritchard and Toby Olditch from Oxford [1], known as "The B-52 Two", who are currently on bail, are charged with conspiracy to cause criminal damage when they tried to disarm and ground B-52 warplanes at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire. in March 2003[2].

Toby Olditch and Philip Pritchard joined three other peace activists Paul Milling, Margaret Jones [3], and Josh Richards [4] in the joint preliminary hearing.

The Crown Prosecution Service have contested that International Law should not form part of their defence at trial.

Barristers Tony Jennings QC, Vaughan Lowe, Professor of International Law at Oxford University, and Alison McDonald from Matrix Chambers act for Toby Olditch and Philip Pritchard. They will argue that International Law should have a bearing in the defence of the accused. The B-52 Two have pleaded not guilty to their charges as they acted lawfully to uphold international law and prevent a crime. Their trial is listed to begin in July 2004. If convicted of the offences for which they are charged then they could be jailed for up to ten years.

The defendants Toby Olditch and Philip Pritchard said,

"We hope the ruling will go in our favour and that the crown will not be able to prevent us from presenting to the jury our honestly held belief that we were acting to prevent a crime. We want to argue that international law is applicable and that some of the coalition’s actions were illegal in international and UK law"

NOTES
A four page Media Briefing is available on request.

[1] Philip Pritchard, 33, an environmental education teacher and Toby Olditch, 35, an ex-marketing executive are both Oxford residents.

[2] In the early hours of Tuesday March 18, the two peace activists were arrested as they approached a B-52 bomber inside the airbase at RAF Fairford. They intended to safely and openly hammer on the bomber to prevent it taking off and bombing people in Iraq. Cheltenham Magistrates Court remanded the two to Gloucester prison on 19 March until they were released on bail on 20 June 2003. They are charged with conspiracy to cause criminal damage; going equipped to cause criminal damage.

[3] Paul Milling and Margaret Jones cut their way into Fairford Air Force base. There, they disabled trucks used for carrying bombs, and tankers for fuelling the U.S. B-52 bombers waiting to attack Iraq. They have been charged with criminal damage and conspiracy.

[4] Josh Richards was arrested trying to get into RAF Fairford to disable B-52 bombers.

See previous Peace News story:

http://www.peacenews.info/news/article/225

Source: B52two