Thread: 'STANSTED 15' ACTIVISTS WHO BLOCKED DEPORTATION FLIGHT COULD BE SENTENCED TO LIFE

'STANSTED 15' ACTIVISTS WHO BLOCKED DEPORTATION FLIGHT COULD BE SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON

BY JENNI FINK ON 12/10/18 AT 10:59 AM


00:00Activists close Stanstead airport runway after surrounding ‘deportation plane’


More than a year after stopping a deportation flight, 15 activists were found guilty of a terrorism-related offense that could send them to prison for life.

On March 28, 2017, the “Stansted 15” cut a hole in the perimeter fence at Stansted Airport in Essex, United Kingdom, and chained themselves to the front of a plane’s nose wheel, according to BBC News. The plane, destined for Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, was to transport people from a detention center.

"I was fighting to stop the plane deporting people to a place where they would be at risk of being killed or seriously harmed,” activist Benjamin Smoke, 27, told the court, the BBC reported.

The group’s actions temporarily shut down the airport, which is about 40 miles from London, and the prosecution argued that the activists had endangered the airport and its passengers.

During the trial, The Guardian reported that Judge Christopher Morgan instructed the jury to only consider whether there was “real and material” risk to the airport.

Following a nine-week trial, a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court found the group of 15 guilty of intentional disruption of services at an aerodrome. The defendants were identified by BBC News as:

• Helen Brewer, 28
• Lyndsay Burtonshaw, 28
• Nathan Clack, 30
• Laura Clayson, 28
• Melanie Evans, 35
• Joseph McGahan, 35
• Benjamin Smoke, 27
• Jyotsna Ram, 33
• Nicholas Sigsworth, 29
• Melanie Strickland, 35
• Alistair Tamlit, 30
• Edward Thacker, 29
• Emma Hughes, 38
• May McKeith, 33
• Ruth Potts, 44

“We are guilty of nothing more than intervening to prevent harm,” the group, End Deportations, told The Guardian. “The real crime is the government’s cowardly, inhumane and barely legal deportation flights and the unprecedented use of terror law to crack down on peaceful protest.”

A general view of Stansted Airport on February 28, 2013, in Bishop's Stortford, England. On Monday, 15 activists were found guilty of intentional disruption of services at an aerodrome after stopping a deportation flight, a conviction that could send them to prison for life.BETHANY CLARKE/GETTY IMAGES

The charge is part of the 1990 Aviation and Maritime Security Act, which was enacted after the 1988 Lockerbie Bombing. On December 21, 1988, a Pan Am transatlantic flight was destroyed by a bomb and all 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed. Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty of 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing.

In the United Kingdom, a person found guilty of intentional disruption of services at an aerodrome can be sentenced to life in prison.

The level of the charge was criticized by various human rights organizations.

Kate Allen, the United Kingdom director of Amnesty International, likened the charge to “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.” She further added that it is “deeply disturbing” that the protesters could face life in prison for causing a disruption that in no way harmed anyone.

"This whole case will send a shiver down the spine of anyone who cares about the right to protest in our country,” Allen said.

“Around the world, human rights defenders are coming under increasing attack. The U.K. should not be bringing such severe charges against those who seek to peacefully stand up for human rights.”

Gracie Bradley, policy and campaigns manager at Liberty called the guilty conviction a “grave injustice,” during an interview with The Guardian.

Sentencing for the 15 individuals is scheduled to take place in February, according to Amnesty International.

https://www.newsweek.com/stansted-15...d-life-1252134

"I was fighting to stop the plane deporting people to a place where they would be at risk of being killed or seriously harmed,” activist Benjamin Smoke, 27, told the court, the BBC reported.

What a lie. All illegals who invade england or europe or america do it for the welfare.

Life in prison seems a little harsh. However, I think they should cool their jets behind bars for 5-10 years.

'Stansted 15' deportation activists spared jail time in UK

There is anger at the use of 'terror' laws to prosecute the activists as more flights are planned to deport migrants.

by Gavin O'Toole 2 hours ago


Court sentenced so-called 'Stansted 15' to 12 community service sentences and three suspended prison terms [Getty Images]

Fifteen protesters who faced jail for life under the United Kingdom's "terror" laws for locking themselves together around a plane to stop the deportation of migrants have been spared imprisonment.

Judge Christopher Morgan on Wednesday sentenced the so-called "Stansted 15" to 12 community service sentences and three suspended prison terms for their role in the 2017 protest.

There is growing anger in the country over the use of "terrorism" rules to prosecute the 15 as well as the continuing policy of deportations which creates a "hostile environment" for immigrants amid reports that further such flights are planned.

Speaking exclusively to Al Jazeera after leaving the court, one of the defendants, Melanie Evans, 35, of Leytonstone, London, said she was "enormously relieved" at not being sent to jail.

"This experience has been incredibly stressful for all of us but it is really only a window into the situation faced by so many migrants in the UK right now, who have a right to seek asylum here but whose asylum applications are being mishandled by the Home Office," she said.

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Amnesty UK

✔@AmnestyUK


BREAKING: The #Stansted15 will not face prison time. We are relieved by the decision made by Chelmsford Crown Court, but are still concerned about the impact this trial has had on #humanrights in the UK. More to follow.

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5:15 AM - Feb 6, 2019

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Evans said the 15 would now be appealing their original convictions, arguing that the jury in their trial was never given the opportunity to consider the reasons for their peaceful protest that night.

"The fact that we were trying to prevent harm and protect people whose lives are at risk - that's a huge part of why there are concerns around the safety of these convictions," she said.

"Furthermore, there are big questions to be asked about the use of terror-related offences to prosecute peaceful protest in the UK."

Hundreds of supporters of the 'Stansted 15' gathered outside the court and inside the court during the proceedings on Wednesday.

Cause celebre

The case of the 15 activists - aged between 27 and 44 - had become a cause celebre since they were convicted in December of endangering the safety of an aerodrome with their protest in March 2017.

The activists had cut a fence to enter a restricted area of London's Stansted airport and chained themselves together to halt a Boeing 767 deporting 60 people to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

While most of those being flown on the Stansted flight were subsequently moved out of the UK, some still remain and are fighting their cases with the Home Office.

The Stansted convictions drew attention to the tough deportation policy adopted by the UK under the then Home Secretary Theresa May, now the country's prime minister.

End Deportations and other groups have alleged that some of those being forced on to special flights chartered by the government are being removed illegally.

READ MORE
More migrants and refugees try to reach UK via English Channel


Evans told Al Jazeera that another deportation flight to Jamaica is planned by the government in the coming weeks - the first since the "Windrush" scandal that highlighted the injustices of UK immigration policy towards legal migrants from the West Indies.

"This raises huge concerns because what happened with the Windrush scandal is that hundreds of people were deported when they should not have been: at least 11 people have died as a consequence of those deportations and this goes to prove what we were concerned about at the time of our action."

Kevin Smith of the End Deportations campaign group, to which the 15 belong, said, "There are serious questions about people being charged with terror-related offences for peaceful protest."

"But what really needs to be changed is the 'hostile environment' in the UK towards migrants, the systematic cruelty with which the authorities are treating people, and the need to stop charter flights," he added.

"It does raise very serious questions about whether there are any people on the plane to Jamaica that is being planned who are being deported illegally in a similar way."

Condemnation

Human rights groups denounced the 'Stansted 15' prosecutions and the government's immigration policies.

Following Wednesday's ruling, Amnesty International condemned the decision to charge the protesters under terror laws and the impact this could have for the right to protest in the UK.
Kate Allen, Amnesty International's UK director, said, "The decision not to jail these brave human rights defenders is a relief, but not enough. They should never have faced this very serious terrorism-related charge in the first place. They remain convicted of an offence which simply doesn't fit their actions and their trial could have a dangerous chilling effect on peaceful protest in this country."

READ MORE
UK: Anger over terrorism conviction for "Stansted 15' activists


"We hope the court of appeal will swiftly put an end to the distressing ordeal that the 'Stansted 15' have faced for nearly two years," she said.

Responding to the sentences, Shami Chakrabarti, the opposition Labour Party's Shadow Attorney General, said, "It will be a matter of relief to all those who value peaceful dissent, proportionality and common sense that none of the Stansted 15 have been imprisoned. But their terrorism convictions remain a real concern with serious consequences for their lives."

Rights group Liberty urged the court to be mindful not to breach articles 10 and 11 of the European convention on human rights, which guarantee freedom of expression, including peaceful protest.

"The excessive charges brought in this case were an attack on the right to protest that threatens activists, campaigners and anyone who cares about the need for dissent," Corey Stoughton, Liberty's acting director, told journalists.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...171743564.html