CAAB report 103
Harrogate Magistrates'
Court - 28 July 2003
Following on the saga of the treatment of Lindis
Percy at the behest of the Ministry of Defence Police Agency at NSA Menwith
Hill when she was again spuriously arrested for alleged breach of bail
conditions at the weekly CAAB demonstration last week (refer to CAAB website
if you did not receive the CAAB reports for this and for the week
before) ..........
Lindis was in Harrogate Magistrates' Court today
to make an application for a variation of bail conditions. The bail
conditions imposed last week by Harrogate Magistrates' Court clearly were
unworkable, uncertain and unreasonable in that the Ministry of Defence
Police (for the second week running had quite spuriously arrested
Lindis for 'obstruction of the highway' and 'breach of bail conditions'.
She was detained over night at Harrogate Police Station. She did not
appear in court until the the next afternoon.
Harrogate Magistrates found that the alleged
breach of bail conditions was 'not proved' (not proved because she
was in MDPA custody at the time and had been dragged into the area
within the bail conditions by PC Gary Hall - MDPA).
Today Lindis suggested clear and certain bail
conditions to the Magistrates which were immediately opposed by Peter Scott
(Crown Prosecution Service). The Magistrates adjourned and returned to
court after sometime and imposed the same bail conditions:
'Not to go within 15 meters of the boundary of
Menwith Hill'
It seemed that Harrogate Magistrates had not
listened to the account of the way the MDPA had twice arrested Lindis and
both incidents had not been proved. They have put Lindis again in an
impossible situation and have reimposed the same unworkable bail conditions.
Lindis will be present once again at the weekly
CAAB demonstration at Menwith Hill to uphold her right to protest (Harrogate
Magistrates had specifically imposed the distance of 15 meters so that she
could demonstrate - despite Anni, Mel and Laura carefully measuring the
distance with the help of a MDPA officer, Lindis was arrested as soon as she
arrived at the weekly demonstration last week). We will once again
carefully measure the distance to enable Lindis to attend.
CAAB is very keen to ensure that our Human Right
to peaceful protest is upheld and will not be deterred or intimidated by the
MDPA who seem determined to arrest Lindis on the slightest of pretexts -
whether lawful or not.
Anni Rainbow and Lindis Percy
Joint Co-ordinators
CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF AMERICAN BASES (CAAB)
8 Park Row, Otley, West Yorkshire, LS21 1HQ, England, U.K.
Tel/fax no: +44 (0)1943 466405 0R +44 (0)1482 702033
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world: indeed it's the only
thing that ever does." Margaret
Mead
