Jury found the four not guilty because they were trying to prevent a greater crime
Twenty-nine years ago today, 29 July 1996, four women trying to prevent genocide were acquitted in Liverpool of all charges brought by the Crown Prosecution Service accusing them of causing severe damage to a ‘Hawk’ fighter aircraft about to be sold to the Indonesian government, which was engaged in a genocidal occupation of East Timor in which it intended to use the fighter jet.
Angie Zelter, 45, Joanna Wilson, 33, Andrea Needham, 30 and Lotta Kronlid, 28, were all found not guilty on the basis that they were committing a crime to prevent a greater crime: the East Timor genocide.
From 2004 to 2006, Keir Starmer acted as a barrister for five people who had tried to damage RAF planes to prevent them bombing Iraq in Tony Blair’s illegal war that would eventually cause the deaths of more than 1.2 million civilians. He presented a defence on the basis that they were acting to prevent a greater evil.
The legal principle of preventing a greater evil is well established in British law. It is believed to be a major reason that the Israel lobby-driven Starmer and Yvette Cooper declared Palestine Action a terrorist group earlier this month despite condemnation from the United Nations and other legal experts, making membership of or support for it a criminal offence in itself and cutting off the ‘greater evil’ principle as a legal defence for damage caused during direct actions taken against entities it accused of complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
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If the government’s plans to further restrict the right to a jury trial go ahead will we see a switch to protesters being charged with less serious offences (2yrs max prison sentence) in order to avoid the risk of embarrassing verdicts from juries with a conscience.
If the government’s plans…
YOUR govt…Or rather the one you elected from your safe haven, while demanding we tell you what isn’t to like about the shower o’ bastards. .
YOUR govt – led by the anaemic, invertebrate gobshite YOU extol as a legal and political genius.
Away n shite.
🥱
A yawn emoji. How profound.
Still…what’s not to like, wee noncecase? Still got that part time job?
Toffee,
They don’t like it up ’em Mr Mainwaring!
“If the government’s plans to further restrict the right to a jury trial go ahead….”
STARMER – your name is “tyrannical authoritarianism” (see below).
Came across the following piece on a Times updates page earlier, posted at 3.35 on Sunday afternoon:
Netanyahu: No more excuses for agencies trying to deliver aid
Binyamin Netanyahu has said there were “no more excuses” for UN agencies attempting to deliver aid to Gazans.
The Israeli prime minister and his officials have frequently blamed the UN for failing to distribute aid in the strip, with Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s foreign minister, telling Politico last week: “There are more than 900 trucks waiting … inside the Gaza Strip, and they [the UN] are just not distributing them to the people in Gaza.”
On Sunday, speaking during a visit to an air base, Netanyahu said: “There are secure routes. There have always been, but today it’s official. There will be no more excuses.”
Well in the first place – and as I said in a post recently, albeit in respect of Hamas – the MSM hardly ever give the organisation being disparaged by Israel the oppurtunity to respond to what was said, in this case by Netanyahu and Gideon Sa’ar. If it was the other way round, you can be 1000% certain that they – the MSM – would get a response from Israel BEFORE publishing the article (and more-than-likely slant the headline in Israel’s favour as well). And the reason they don’t of course is because they know that Israel is spouting B/S, and it would be shown to be B/S if they included the response.
And in the second place it is complete and utter garbage and of course inconceivable that the UN wouldn’t deliver the food and distribute it to the starving people of Gaza if they could, and it was safe for them to do so. Obviously they would. And needless to say, BN is lying through his nasty evil mass murdering teeth about there having been safe routes, and Sa’ar is too, and more-than likely ALSO lying about there being more than 900 trucks in Gaza. I mean does it seem remotely likely that there’s all these trucks sitting around full of food in Gaza and it not having been taken by the hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza who are starving hungry?!
Yep, the lying genocidal murderers are trying to pin the blame for their deliberate mass starvation of 2 million people and kids starving to death on the UN. There really are absolutely no limits to their evil.
NB As of June 25th, 317 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza, many of them no doubt targeted and murdered along with family members, and Netanyahu and his fascist buddies are totally luvin’ every minute of it all, and their B/S lies about the UN stem from their ultra sadism and, as such, amuses them all no end. And they all know, including Biden and Blinken and Trump and Witkoff and Huckabee and Starmer and David – Hamas raped babies – Lammy et al, that their evil is beyond most people’s comprehension – ie inconceivable in the sense that they are unable to conceive of what totally inhuman monsters they actually are. And it would probably blow their minds if they did.
They’d lock them up and throw away the key now. Put them on bread and water too.
From 2004 to 2006, Keir Starmer acted as a barrister for five people who had tried to damage RAF planes to prevent them bombing Iraq in Tony Blair’s illegal war that would eventually cause the deaths of more than 1.2 million civilians. He presented a defence on the basis that they were acting to prevent a greater evil.
Out of interest, do you know how that/those case(s)went?
Failed to reach a verdict in keef-s client’s case.
After arguing that what he (the defendant) did WAS illegal, that lack of vindication was no doubt the factor that swung political keef into making the decision to proscribe PA as terrorists in otlrder to bolster any further prosecutions.
It was just another job for keef, back then.
On a related note, a few days ago I’m sure I read or watched a video** about someone (in Scotland IIRC) being charged with dangerous driving – aggravated by terrorism.
W the absolute F…?
**Think it was Craig Murray.
This one……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwyv3cSyY_g&ab_channel=TheCrispinFlintoffShow
….One charge of Malicious Mischief aggravated by terrorism and one charge of dangerous driving aggravated by terrorism.
That’s the one! If i hadnt been so tired and on the verge of nodding off whole watching it (1st time around) I’d have likely facepalmed meself into looking like a bulldog.
It’s not just the end of trial by Jury, Starmer is a key player in destroying the criminal justice system. https://off-guardian.org/2025/07/11/explained-the-uks-potentially-terrifying-criminal-justice-reforms/
.
Aye. A kafkaesque dystopia is already upon us.
And it all it took to kick it off was when some fella sat on poison dwarf tom king’s garden wall.
And on the subject of the right to silence….it seems the uk media has invoked its own right to silence regarding them rent boys what allegedly set fire to keefs (former) properties…😙🎶
ooooh, don’t know nothin, me. I don’t even know what to google, Toffee?