Press Releases & Updates 2004

The three cases - of Paul Milling and Margaret Jones, Philip Pritchard and Toby Olditch, and Josh Richards - will be tried separately, but have been joined for the purpose of pre-trial hearings. All five accused have consistently offered a similar defence - that they carried out their actions to resist what they believe to have been an illegal war.

High Court judge Mr. Justice Grigson, ruled in May on the defence arguments available to the defendants at trial. He granted the accused the right to claim they had a "lawful excuse" for their actions - provided they spoke only about whether crimes were committed in the way the war was conducted, and not about the legality of the war itself. The Crown will appeal against the decision.

What could not be permitted, Mr. Grigson declared after the pre-trial hearing at Bristol Crown Court, was any discussion of whether the act of launching the war against Iraq was in itself illegal, regardless of the way in which the war was fought. The basic principle of a British government’s decision to go to war, the judge ruled, is a matter of "Crown Prerogative"- something a British domestic court cannot be allowed to decide. According to barrister Hugo Charlton, who is representing one of the defendants, any such ruling sets the British government above the law. It allows the government, in Charlton’s words, "a James Bond licence to kill." Lawyers for all three groups of defendants are appealing against this "non-justiciability" ruling .

In the Court of Appeal next week, Milling and Jones will be represented by James Lewis QC, and Josh Richards by Keir Starmer. A third QC, Anthony Jennings, will represent Pritchard and Olditch. The hearing is expected to continue until Thursday 1st July

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