16/12/2018
The Trotskyist daily paper The News Line published by the Workers Revolutionary Party, reports that FIFTEEN protesters who locked themselves around a plane at Stansted Airport, successfully stopping those aboard from being deported back to countries where they faced torture or death, have been convicted of ‘terrorism offences’. These are the first activists involved in a non-violent direct action protest to be convicted under such laws. One of the activists, Benjamin Smoke, 27, of London, told the court: ‘I was fighting to stop the plane deporting people to a place where they would be at risk of being killed or seriously harmed.’ Among those that the protestors were protecting were people who were threatened with deportation to countries where there is little support for LGBT people. Amnesty International’s UK director Kate Allen described the verdicts as a ‘crushing blow for human rights in the UK’. She said: ‘The terrorism-related charge against these individuals was always a case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It’s deeply disturbing that peaceful protesters who caused disruption but at no time caused harm to anyone, should now be facing a possible lengthy prison sentence. This whole case will send a shiver down the spine of anyone who cares about the right to protest in our country.’ Amnesty International was joined by LGBTQ specific campaign groups in sounding the alarm over the verdict.
