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Press Releases & Updates 1999
25th October 1999
Standard Fare From Local JP In Face Of Landmark Ruling
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Today, Monday 25th October 1999, in Helensburgh District Court, German
Ploughshares activist Anne Scholz (22) from Freiburg, was found guilty of a
breach of bye-laws and fined £50 following her swim into Faslane naval
base in August this year, in an attempt to reach and disarm a Trident
nuclear weapons submarine docked there. Also today MSP Margo McDonald and
Dorothy Grace-Elder have tabled motions for debate in the Scottish
Parliament on the legal and constitutional implications of Sheriff
Gimblett’s ruling in Greenock last week.
A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said:
"On the one hand last week’s judgement in Greenock Sheriff Court, which
freed three Ploughshares activists, has led to motions for debate in the
Scottish Parliament touching on three hugely important issues: the
relationship between Scots law and international law; the core of the UK’s
defence policy; the independence of Scottish jurisdiction in constitutional
terms. On the other hand another Ploughshares activist is found guilty of
the breach of a piddling piece of delegated legislation in a piddling local
court. JP Stirling, who delivered today’s verdict, has already admitted
that he is incompetent to deal with cases involving international law. He
demonstrated that incompetence again today. He has consistently failed to
follow the logic of his confession and refuse to handle these cases, in
which activists attempt to justify their direct action against the illegal
bases on the basis that they are upholding international law.
The threat from Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons remains imminent. The
continued and lamentable failure of this local court to face its
responsibilities and join the struggle to prevent nuclear crime is yet one
more reason for continuing and intensifying our direct action."
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