Press Releases & Updates 2004

A Faslane protester who claims he was unfairly treated by being arrested at a Faslane blockade has called a senior police officer, Chief Superintendent E.M. Roger of Strathclyde Police, to give evidence for the defence at his trial in Helensburgh District Court this coming Monday (22nd November).

Alan Wilkie (72), from Edinburgh, will claim that he was the subject of discrimination when police at the April 2003 blockade did not arrest a group whose conduct was identical to his, and which included MSP Tommy Sheridan and other candidates for the Scottish Parliament elections which were held the following week.

Campaigners strongly suspect that police were politically motivated in their decisions at that blockade and did not want to grant publicity to the candidates by arresting them.

At a preliminary hearing on the case Alan lodged a submission that the arrest breached his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. When the magistrate rejected this submission Alan appealed to the High Court of Justiciary. Although that appeal was rejected on 5th August, Lord MacLean, presiding, said that the rejection was simply due to the lack of facts in the case and that the legal issues Alan raised were new and would deserve consideration, should the case return to the High Court.

A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said: "Strathclyde Police always claim that their interventions at Faslane are even-handed. We have always disputed this. Even if we leave aside their complete failure to address or investigate the breaches of international law that are at the core of the Faslane operation, they have also sided with the British state by arresting people there for Breach of the Peace, a charge that is utterly discredited in its application to peaceful protest. On April 2003 their bias was even more blatant.

Politicians who risk arrest by challenging Britain’s weapons of mass destruction are not band-wagoning, they are providing clear evidence to the electorate of where they stand on a critical issue. We just wish there were more of them."

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