Law Lords reject appeal by war protestors

by: Andrew Frisicano

Paul Milling and Margaret Jones outside the Royal Courts of Justice in July 2004.
PHOTO: Rowland Dye ,

Britain: The appeal of twenty peace campaigners who said their actions against the military were justified to stop the war in Iraq was turned down on 29 March. The group had been asking for the ability to cite international law in their defence for various actions against military equipment leading up to the Iraq War. Lord Bingham with four other Lords ruled to deny the defendants the right to claim to be preventing the greater “crime of aggression.” The Lords ruled “despite a crime of aggression being illegal under international law, it is not a crime under UK law. Therefore denying the defendants the right to argue issues relating to the legality of the war did not constitute a denial of their right to a fair trial.”

One of the campaigners, Philip Pritchard from Oxford, remarked on the verdict, "The Lords' ruling does not state that the Iraq war is legal. It simply gags campaigners who took direct action to oppose it. We are disappointed but not surprised that the Law Lords have failed to make a stand for peace. The horror in Iraq continues and it seems that the Lords were swayed by politics rather than justice."

Ben Ayliffe, one of the fourteen Greenpeace protestors convicted of aggravated trespass for actions leading up to the war, said, “We are very disappointed by the Lords verdict. It is bizarre that people who followed their conscience to prevent an illegal war are penalised while the architects of that war get away scot free.” Greenpeace is calling on Parliament ensure the international crime of aggression is included within UK national law.

For further information and for the background to the case, go to http://www.b52two.org or http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?ucidparam=20060216162130