As a result of yesterday’s appeals seven protesters have had their sentences reduced by between three and 18 months.
Lord Justice Thomas, Mrs Justice Rafferty DBE, and Mr Justice Bean ruled that the starting point of 3 years applied by sentencing judge, Judge Denniss, was too high. It was reduced to 27 months.
This meant that one defendant had his sentence reduced from two and a half years to 12 months. As a result he and several other protesters who are currently in prison should be eligible for early release in the next few months.
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Lizzie Cocker – Isleworth
Gaza demonstrator Martin Askew was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison sparking outrage from campaigners who branded the ongoing trials as “political”.
Mr Askew will serve nine months of an immediate custodial sentance and then be released on license.
He was charged three weeks ago with two counts of violent disorder for his involvement in the demonstrations outside the Israeli Embassy in London on the 3rd and 10th of January 2009, called as a result of the three-week Israeli offensive on Gaza which caused over 1,400 Palestinian deaths. Read more »
Friday at court saw two more defendants avoid jail terms. Two male adults were given suspended sentences of 12 months, along with 150 hours and 200 hours of unpaid community work. We are very relieved for these defendants and glad that they can finally return to their lives knowing the prolonged torment they have been put through over the last year and a half is finally over.
Trial ongoing till Monday 26th April
Come and show support at court
A trial is currently taking place for one of the Gaza defendants. The defendant in question was himself attacked by the police at the demonstration in London on the 10th January 2009, receiving a broken nose and requiring 70 stitches.
The trial began earlier this week and is expected to conclude next Tuesday (27th April). It’s vital that the jury sees that the issues in this trial are not isolated, but linked to nearly 80 other young people who are being dragged through the British judicial system for protesting war crimes in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009.
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Joanna Berridge – Isleworth
There were three purposes of attending court on Thursday, firstly to check the outcome of the trial we had been unable to attend earlier in the week, secondly to attend the hearing which was taking place and thirdly to deliver a letter to this defendant’s barrister, containing important information regarding previous cases.
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Taherali Gulamhussein – Isleworth
As we turned up to Court for another day there were no surprises when I shook hands with the thirty-eighth Defendant this campaign knows of that has passed through the courts. He became both the thirty-fifth Muslim and the thirty-fifth person of non-White British ethnicity (Moroccan Arab). Statistics are always a thing that I have an aversion to because they seem to take the human perspective out of an issue. But with this issue, the use of these numbers just serves to underline the dehumanisation the Metropolitan Police sought when they selected the people they did for beatings, arrests and criminalisation.
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Lizzie Cocker – Isleworth Crown Court
Another young person was criminalised on Friday for publicly opposing the Israeli attacks on Gaza last year but was spared prison because of his “particular vulnerability”.
The defendant, aged 21, received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years and 250 hours unpaid work for his participation in the spontaneous January 2009 protests in London against the British-backed Operation Cast Lead which killed approximately 1,400 Palestinians over a three week period.
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26th March 2010 – Lizzie Cocker – Isleworth Crown Court
Two more youngsters charged with violent disorder during last year’s protests against Israel’s two-week massacre of the Gazan people have been handed harsh jail terms.
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