In Helensburgh District Court, on Tuesday 29 September, Katri Silvonen, Hanna Jarvinen and Krista van Velzen were found guilty and admonished on charges relating to their direct disarmament actions during the August phase of the Trident Ploughshares 2000 campaign at Faslane and Coulport. (photo shows them on the beach near the Ploughshares camp)
All the defendants said they were on their way to disarm a weapon of mass destruction and were acting to uphold international law. "Under the Nuremberg Principles," said Hanna," I have a right if not a duty to prevent the crime that is happening at Faslane".
Katri said:" Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system is a crime against humanity and it is my duty as a global citizen to take action. I belong to Finland, a nuclear-free country, but that does not protect me - radiation does not recognise borders." When asked by the Procurator Fiscal if he had been given authority to enter the nuclear base she said:" I was not given permission by the authorities in Faslane but I have been given that right by the previous War Crimes Tribunals."
Supporters were full of admiration for the clarity, dignity and courage with which the women gave their testimony in a court that was foreign to them and whose business was not conducted in their mother tongue. Justice of The Peace Tony Stirling obviously agreed and congratulated them on a well -presented and very interesting case.
Expert witness Glen Rangwala, a specialist in International Law from Cambridge University pointed out that the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion of 1996, by which the UK government's position on nuclear weapons is illegal, " . .is the highest statement of customary law that we have." In spite of being given "cause for thought" JP Stirling said he had no alternative but to disregard the arguments from international law for to do otherwise would mean that he would have to accept that the UK Government were committing War Crimes! He put himself in a thoroughly contradictory position by saying that the case might be argued in the High Court. Clearly, if Helensburgh District Court finds itself unable to deal with arguments so central to the defence of the TP 2000 activists, it has no business hearing their cases and wasting everybody's time. JP Stirling's verdict also flew in the face of the prosecution's failure to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that their intention was to commit crime.
Earlier fellow TP 2000 activist Helen John was fined £180 for her disarmament action. Having been given 6 months to pay she is free like the other three women and able to put the traumatic events at Cornton Vale Prison behind her.
Meanwhile the case of Angie Zelter, Tracy Hart and Sylvia Boyes, charged with stealing the Ministry of Defence boat which they borrowed for a citizens' inspection has been adjourned to the 16th October because an MOD witness did not turn up. The MOD's reluctance to describe that incident in open court is quite understandable.
Scottish CND News