Press Releases & Updates 2001

Ulla (46), from Odense in Demark, was found guilty on September 14th on six counts relating to anti-Trident actions and was appearing today for sentence. Sheriff Fitzsimmons admonished her on some of the charges but he gave her three months for a breach of the peace charge involving stopping a nuclear weapons convoy with other activists, saying that that half of that sentence was in respect of an aggravated breach of bail conditions. He also gave her two other month long jail sentences, to run concurrently, one for her celebrated swim to HMS Vanguard in April when she painted USELESS on the hull of the nuclear missile submarine and one for her part in a women’s action on a French warship docked at Faslane. He allowed a measure of the time she served on remand to be taken into account and this, together with time off for good behaviour, is likely to mean an actual term of one month.

The Sheriff told Ulla: "I see every likelihood of you continuing to defy the law of this country and I therefore recommend that you be deported at the end of your sentence."

The sentence and recommendation are seen by fellow campaigners as excessive and political. Jane Tallents, who was present in court said: "It’s hypocritical for any British court to punish Ulla for "defying" the law. It was the fact that Britain defies the whole fabric of international humanitarian law by actively deploying a murder weapon like Trident that brought her here in the first place. They may send Ulla away but they have not dented the resistance to Trident, which is growing here day by day. Ulla’s commitment continues to be a great inspiration for us."

There is additional irony in the fact that yesterday the Trident Ploughshares campaign, represented by Ulla along with Angie Zelter and Ellen Moxley, was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize for 2001 (also known as the "Alternative Nobel Peace Prize"), to be handed over in the Swedish parliament in December.

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