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its been 24 hrs since #Stansted15 verdict went public+ weve been overwhelmed by the support
as the dust settles, wanted to take a moment to talk about what comes next bc were not out of the woods yet. the next 28 days could open us up to years more legal proceedings. heres how:
as the dust settles, wanted to take a moment to talk about what comes next bc were not out of the woods yet. the next 28 days could open us up to years more legal proceedings. heres how:
the cps yesterday said they were 'considering their position'. they have 28 days from the verdict dropping to do so. in that time they can decide to do one of the three following things.
1) no further action (the correct decision)
1) no further action (the correct decision)
2) they can appeal the decision of the court of appeal to the supreme court. we won on the grounds there was no case to answer under the terror charge. it was patently ludicrous to charge and prosecute us under it. an appeal on the part of a crown would amount to them pushing...
forward with eye-wateringly expensive and time consuming legal proceedings just so that they can get away with charging protestors under the most serious anti-terror legislation. it would be a direct attack on the right to protest, and must not be allowed to happen.
3) they can accept the verdict from the court of appeal BUT they can take us back to court in the magistrates and put us on trial for aggravated trespass (AT). though we were tried and prosecuted under the terror law, we were originally charged with AT. when they added terror...
the AT charge remained. the crown court didn't have jurisdiction to hear it (bc its a lesser offence) so the charge just sat there, unheard but still open. when we were sentenced the prosecution specifically said they were leaving it unresolved, pending the outcome of our appeal.
the verdict yesterday proved what we said all along - that we should never have been tried under such serious legislation. taking us back, and putting us on trial in a magistrates for AT (which would last 6-8 days and carry a maximum sentence of 3 months in prison) is them..
... trying to get a do-over after they royally fucked it with the terror charges. it would be cruel and unusual to put us back on trial after the months we've already spent in court, and the years and years we've already spent fighting this. and that goes without mentioning...
.. the huge cost.
the prosecution spent £150,000 on 4 external lawyers for their case. we had 11 lawyers at trial. 5 at appeal. this doesn't count court time, police time, cps time etc. etc.
the terrorism charge was an expensive gamble that they lost. badly.
the prosecution spent £150,000 on 4 external lawyers for their case. we had 11 lawyers at trial. 5 at appeal. this doesn't count court time, police time, cps time etc. etc.
the terrorism charge was an expensive gamble that they lost. badly.
they cannot be allowed to try and vindictively take us back to court because they fucked it.
they have 28 days to decide what to do. which means we have 28 days to convince them to do the right thing, the only sensible and reasonable thing, which is to accept the judgement.
they have 28 days to decide what to do. which means we have 28 days to convince them to do the right thing, the only sensible and reasonable thing, which is to accept the judgement.
you've all been so incredible already, and none of us would have got through this without you, but i hope you'll help us fight this next stage, and make your voices heard that we should not face further action. this needs to be the end.
