It is expected that the Appeal lodged by the Home Office and the metropolitan Police (why not just the Home Office ?) against the Judicial Review which currently allows long term peace protestor Brian Haw will reach a jufgement today.
Brian Haw's demonstration is currentlly the only one which is exempt from the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 section 132 Designated Area, as it was judged to have started before the SOCPA legislation was brought into force.
We await news of the results of this Appeal.at the High Court currently being heard , in the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand..
UPDATE: Associated Press are reporting that the Government has won its appeal against Brian Haw 8-(
More details below:
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Immediate press release Sunday 7 May 2006BRIAN HAW PRESS CONFERENCE ON COURT OF APPEAL DECISION ON HIS RIGHT TO CONTINUE PROTEST IN PARLIAMENT SQUARE
COURT OF APPEAL DECISION: 10AM, MONDAY 8 MAY 2006, COURT 71, ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE, THE STRAND, LONDON
PRESS CONFERENCE: PARLIAMENT SQUARE SHORTLY AFTERWARDS.
Three Court of Appeal judges will on Monday present their decision in a case that will determine the legality Brian Haw's demonstration.
Mr Haw will remain in Parliament Square during the announcement and make a statement to the press shortly after the decision has been heard. He will be joined by many of his supporters. Members of the press are invited to be in Parliament Square from 10am.
BACKGROUND:
Mr Haw has been staging a continuous demonstration opposite Parliament for nearly 5 years. He has been to court many times to defend his right to protest against the government's foreign policy in Iraq.
The Home Office and the Metropolitan Police are appealing a High Court judgement made in July last year which found that the law that had been passed specifically in order to remove him from Parliament Square did not apply to Mr Haw.
Mr Haw's demonstration had been seen as lawful since he won his first High Court victory in October 2005. [A] In 2005 the government included new measures within the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) to legally evict him.
However, when drafting the law, the government specified that demonstrations must have authorisation from the Metropolitan Commissioner before they 'start'. Last year, Mr Haw's defence team argued in court that it was only in secondary legislation that continuous protests such as his were covered. The judges found that the new law could not be applied retrospectively and did not apply to Brian Haw and that he could continue his protest without authorisation from the police. [B]
At the Court of Appeal hearing on 3 April, the Home Office, the Metropolitan Police (as an interested party) and Mr Haw's legal team all made submissions based on arguments about what the relevant sections of the law say and how they should be interpreted, what Parliament's intention was in passing the law and the legality of the extra measures included in the secondary legislation.
If the appeal does not go in Mr Haw's favour he could face immediate eviction proceedings. However, his legal team will argue that Mr Haw be left alone until the outcome of an appeal to the House of Lords is known.
There have been a total of 12 convictions to date under Section 132 of the SOCPA legislation which bans unauthorised protests near Parliament. [C]
CONTACT & INFORMATION:
There will be a demonstration in support of Mr Haw outside the Royal Courts of Justice from 9.30am.
Brian Haw will make a statement to the press in Parliament Square after the announcement of the judgement and then be available for interviews.
For more information contact Emma Sangster, supporter of Brian Haw, 07791 486484 or his solicitor Stephen Grosz of Bindmans and Partners on 020 7833 4433
info@parliament-square.org.uk, www.parliament-square.org.ukNOTES:
A. www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4515616-103690,00.html
B. www.guardian.co.uk/antiwar/story/0,,1539340,00.html
C. The provisions in question are sections 132-138 Serious Organised Crime and Police
Act 2005. See www.parliamentprotest.org.uk and www.parliament-square.org.uk/defendaction.htm for details of protests against the new law and arrests.
Parliament Square Peace Campaign
for supporters of Brian Haw and the right to protest
www.parliament-square.org.uk
so what do we do now? Time to defend Brian Haw? He certainly speaks for me.
k
@ K - Brian Haw is now, legally, in the same boat as all the rest of us.
Any strategy for defending his right to protest peacefully, will also apply to everyone else's rights.
If you have not already done so, please write to your Member of Parliament e.g. using WriteToThem.com
our rulers are following hitlers corporate-fascist gameplan to the letter.
"fascism is the union of big business and the state" - mussolini.
800,000 germans were arrested for resisting facsism.
400,000 were put to death by the nazi state.
hitler called them terrorists.
when we look back do we regard them as hero's or terrorists ?