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Activists
Found Not Guilty in Irish Ploughshares Case
By HARRY BROWNE
It took nearly three-and-a-half years
for the case of the Pitstop Ploughshares to reach a jury. It
took the jury less than three-and-a-half hours to find the five
activists not guilty of criminal damage to a US Navy plane at
Shannon Airport in western Ireland in February 2003.
Having been instructed not
to respond audibly to the verdict, the crowd in the courtroom
sobbed quietly with joy and relief as the verdicts were read
out for all five defendants earlier today (25 July).
The two-week trial in the Dublin
Circuit Court was the third time around for Deirdre Clancy, Nuin
Dunlop, Karen Fallon, Damien Moran and Ciaron O'Reilly, as Counterpunch
readers may recall. The first trial in March 2005 and the second
trial last November both ended in mistrials because the judges
admitted they could be perceived as biased against the accused.
This trial was the first time a jury was allowed by Judge
Miriam Reynolds to hear it argued fully that the 'disarmament'
of the navy C40 transport was done with 'lawful excuse'.
In the the two trials of Mary Kelly for earlier damage
to the same plane the judge ruled out the 'lawful excuse' defence.
The defence under Ireland's
criminal-damage statute allows damage to property if it's done
in the 'honest belief' that so doing will protect lives and/or
property, and if that belief is reasonable in the circumstances
as the accused perceived them to be. Judge Reynolds said only
the reasonableness of the belief, not its honesty, was at issue
in the case, and said the question was so tied up with the facts
of the case that it wouldn't be appropriate for her to prohibit
the jury from considering it.
The trial heard from activist
and Counterpuncher Kathy Kelly, who met the five shortly before
their action and told them about the horrors inflicted on Iraq
by sanctions and bombing prior to February 2003. It also heard
from ex-Royal Air Force logistics expert Geoffrey Oxley that
he couldn't rule out the possibility ofdamage to a transport
plane having a knock-on effect that could result in lives saved
in Iraq.
An international-law expert
also testified as to the illegality of the US war.
In effect, the jury agreed
that to damage an American military plane in these circumstances
couldn't be considered a crime.
Whatever about the technical
reasons for the verdict, its quickness and unanimity sends a
message to the Irish government about its policy of facilitating
the US military at Irish airports, especially Shannon. More than
300,000 troops have passed through there in the last year alone.
The jury was applauded out
of the courtroom, prompting the judge to return from her chambers
to chastise spectators.
The five read a statement outside
the courtroom that highlighted the political importance of the
verdict: "The jury is the conscience of the community, chosen
randomly from Irish society. The conscience of the community
has spoken. The government has no popular mandate in providing
the civilian Shannon Airport to service the US war machine in
its illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.
"In 1996 in Liverpool
a jury acquittal of the four 'ploughshares' women contributed
to the end of arms exports to the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia
and the independence of East Timor.
"The decision of this
jury should be a message to London, Washington DC and the Dail
[Irish parliament] that Ireland wants no part in waging war on
the people of Iraq. Refuelling of US warplanes at Shannon Airport
should cease immediately."
As a crowd of reporters and
photographers descended upon the five innocent activists outside
Dublin's Four Courts, Ciaron O'Reilly asked the assembled media:
"Where have you been for the last three-and-a-half years?"
It's a question not just about the lack of coverage of their
action and trials--this one was barely mentioned in the Irish
media--but about the media's ignorance of the ongoing atrocities
of war and occupation in Iraq.
Harry Browne is a media lecturer
at Dublin Institute of Technology and writes for Village magazine.
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