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Press Releases & Updates 2001
27th October 2001
Euro Green Spokesperson Defies Scottish Court
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Marion Coyne (49), the Belgium based spokesperson for the European
Federation of Green Parties, told the magistrate in a Scottish Court
yesterday that she would probably not pay the fine he had imposed for an
alleged breach of the peace at the Big Blockade of Faslane in February.
Marion, whose Federation represents 10 million Green voters across Europe,
told Justice of the Peace Fraser Gillies in Helensburgh District Court that
there was a sad irony in the way the court system was treating peacemakers
as people who breached the peace. When the JP fined her £180 (as he did all
those found guilty yesterday) she said that she did not think she would pay.
Marion’s case followed that of Philippa Gallop (24), a researcher from
Oxford, who was facing the same charge. Philippa argued that the only
restrictions on the right to protest enshrined in the European Convention
on Human Rights referred to behaviour liable to undermine democracy or
national security, or to provoke crime and disorder. These restrictions did
not apply to her action on 12th February - the demonstration then had only
caused a small amount of inconvenience. She was found guilty.
Hazel Neal (50), a chemist dispenser from Birmingham, said that sitting
down in the road at the base was the very least she could - it was a matter
of necessity. Eleisha Fahy (29), who manages the One World shop in
Edinburgh, said that the charge against her of breach of the peace would be
laughable if the issue were not so serious. JP Gillies found them both
guilty and Eleisha told him she did not recognise the decision of the court
and would not be paying the fine.
Gillian Lawrence (45), a community education worker from Edinburgh, pointed
out that the gates to the base had been closed and there was no evidence
that anyone had been alarmed. She was distressed at the fact that severe
poverty existed in Craigmillar, where she worked, while vast amounts of
money were wasted on Trident. When found guilty and fined she too said she
not pay.
There was one exception to this sequence of guilty verdicts when Mary Black
(38), a PhD student at Salford University and a campaign officer for the
Socialist Alliance, made a submission of "no case to answer" following the
Crown evidence. This was accepted by the JP.
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