Just to remind people that it is not just anti-Iraq war peace demonstrators who are affected by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 Designated Area law:
According to the Conservative political blog Iain Dale's Diary:
Karl Watkin isn't just talking about it, he's organising a dignified demonstration of businesses' concern (that's a march to you and me) this THURSDAY 29th JUNE AT 5pm from the Institute of Directors in Pall Mall to the Home Office in Marsham Street, a short distance away.A letter, addressed to the Home Secretary, will be delivered that expresses the extreme unease among the business community at the UK's extradition arrangements with the US. This concern has been highlighted in particular by the case of Ian Norris, the former chief executive of Morgan Crucible plc and the possible imminent extradition of “The NatWest 3” all of which is thrown into even sharper relief by the current OFT/Department of Justice probe into alleged price fixing at BA.
For no very good reason at a all, the Home Office in Marsham Street is within the Designated Area, as is the London Eye ferris wheel on the other bank of the river Thames, but St. James's Park, literally a stones's throw from Number 10 Downing Street , is not included within the Designated Area, and neither is the IOD in Pall Mall.
It will be interesting to see if dotcom millionaires and people from the Institute of Directors are treated like other demonstrators, some of whom have been refused permission to apply for a demonstration within the Designated Area less than "6 clear days" ahead.
UPDATE:
It appears that one of the organisers of this demonstration has been warned by the Police that anything except business suits i.e. tshirts, placards, slogans etc. will not be tolerated !
The police are taking this v. v. seriously and I have been warned in no uncertain terms that any signs of protest (including slogans, banners etc) and we will be stopped and face arrest.
According to this Bloomberg financial news report
European Court Refuses to Halt Extradition of Bankers (Update3)June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Three British bankers will be sent to the U.S. to face Enron Corp.-related fraud charges within three weeks after a European court refused to block their extradition, their final forum for an appeal.
David Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew are wanted in Texas for allegedly bilking their former employer, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc's Greenwich NatWest unit, out of millions from the sale of an Enron off-the-books partnership. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France today declined to suspend their extradition, six days after Britain's highest court also rejected their appeal.
The case has been at the forefront of calls from Britain's business and legal community to scrap its ``fast-track'' extradition arrangements with the U.S. Lobbying groups claim the legislation, introduced in 2004 mainly to clamp down on terrorism, is instead being used to target white-collar offences, unfairly increasing the risks for executives.
[...]
Around 200 U.K. businesspeople are expected to participate in a demonstration against those rules, led by Internet entrepreneur Karl Watkin, in London later this week, according to the event's organizers.
www.friendsextradited.org
The "NatWest 3" -David Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew support website
Other British citizens also facing extradition to the USA, when they could and should have already been tried in the UK, under English law, for alleged crimes committed physically in the UK:
FreeGary.org.uk - Gary McKinnon - facing 70 years in prison for hacking into over 90 unsecured (no administrator password, no iInternet firewall) US Military computer systems, in search of UFO or anti-gravity information.
www.FreeBabarAhmad.com - Babar Ahmad, a British Muslim IT technician accused of runining a website hosted in the USA, but controlled from London which supported Chechen rebels and the Taliban in Afghanistan circa 1999 / 2000. Treated as a terrorist, beaten up when arrested, and locked up in Belmarsh and now Woodhill prison, despite there not being enough evidence to charge him with any offences in the UK.
UPDATE:
Will carrying a copy of today's Independent newspaper, whose frontpage declares Blair laid bare: the article that may get you arrested on this demonstration be enough to get you arrested, even if you are wearing a business suit ?
The article by Henry Potter in Vanity Fair magazine seems to have been enough to get Steven Jago arrested on June 18th "
According to ::
Steven Jago, who was carrying a placard bearing the George Orwell quote "In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act", was later found by police to be in possession of several photocopies of Porter's article Letter from London: Blair's Big Brother Britain, printed in the latest issue of the magazine. Mr Jago claims that they were confiscated by police and he was told the article constituted "politically motivated material".
More coverage of this at Bloggerheads
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