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Press Releases & Updates 1999
14th July 1999
Activist Set Free after Parliament Day Action
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Yesterday a Trident Ploughshares activist was released from custody after appearing in Helensburgh District Court on charges related to his action in July when he celebrated the official opening of the Scottish Parliament by attempting to demolish the perimeter fence at the Coulport nuclear weapons base on Loch Long. Ian Thomson (57), a joiner to trade and a peace and environmental campaigner of many years’ standing, was also charged with being in a prohibited place on the 30th April when he swam out to the new Trident submarine, HMS Vengeance, as it docked at Coulport. Ian’s defence was that he had been acting on both occasions to uphold international humanitarian law. Damage to the perimeter fence at Coulport was estimated at £250. Ian was found guilty on both charges. Since he had already spent 12 days on remand at Greenock prison he was released without sentence. Ian said: "On the day we were celebrating the foundations of a new civilised future for Scotland it seemed right to me that we should be at the same time putting firmly in the past all the greedy, destructive and hate-ridden attitudes that Trident represents. We were opening parliament. Why not open up Coulport and expose our nuclear nightmare?" TP2000 pledger David Mackenzie added: "In spite of the fact that Brian Quail has an appeal before the High Court in Edinburgh to establish the duty of local courts to pay attention to international law, Helensburgh District Court is still somewhere on Planet Zog. Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth the superiority of humanitarian law over local regulations is hardly in dispute." TP2000 Updates: 1. Yesterday, Wednesday 14th July 1999, the 4 Trident Ploughshares 2000 activists from the Midlands who entered the "secure" Nuclear Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston early on Monday morning, were released from Newbury police station, pending further investigations. They will return to Newbury on 24th August for further questioning, which is likely to lead to charges of criminal damage. 2. The three TP2000 activists who disarmed the floating Trident-related lab in Loch Goil on June 8th are still in Cornton Vale prison awaiting trial. Damage to the lab is estimated at £100,000.
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