Press Releases & Updates 2000

The activists are hoping that tomorrow’s 2 p.m. preliminary hearing in the High Court of Justiciary will promote the re-phrasing of the questions set in the Reference, so that the issues central to the Greenock trial, i.e., the legality of Trident and the right of citizens to act to prevent breaches of international humanitarian law, can be dealt with. The interested parties will argue that the whole process of the Reference contradicts the European Convention on Human Rights. They hope also that a number of practical requirements will be met, such as the provision of reasonable costs to one of the women, Angie Zelter, who is representing herself.

Meanwhile the Procurator Fiscal’s office in Dumbarton has again shown bizarre inconsistency in its handling of Trident Ploughshares cases. Marjan Willemsen (23), from the Netherlands, currently at Faslane Peace Camp, sought and was granted at Dumbarton Sheriff Court, without objection from the Fiscal, an adjournment of her trial on a breach of the peace charge until the High Court Ruling on the Lord Advocate’s Reference is available. This is in contrast to the Fiscal’s strenuous objection to such adjournments in a welter of Trident Ploughshares cases at District Court level in recent months, including the plea for adjournment by Angie Zelter of a breach of the peace trial relating to the "Crimebusters" blockade of Faslane naval base in February. Angie is now petitioning the High Court for this adjournment.

A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said:

"We strongly suspect that the attitude of the Dumbarton Procurator Fiscal on adjournments in the light of the upcoming Lord Advocate’s Reference has been determined more by his anxiety about Ploughshares cases clogging up the local courts than by any understanding of legal process."

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