Protesters who blockaded London arms trade fair acquitted after judge sees evidence of illegal weapons on sale
The judge said there was compelling evidence that illegal arms were on sale at DSEI
from the Independent
by Jon Stone
There is compelling evidence that arms were illegally being sold at the world’s biggest arms fair which takes place in London, a judge has ruled.
Stratford Magistrates Court on Friday acquitted eight anti-arms trade protesters who tried to disrupt Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) last September.
District Judge Angus Hamilton accepted the defendants’ argument that they had tried to prevent a greater crime from occurring by blocking a road to stop tanks and other armoured vehicles from arriving at the exhibition centre.
The campaigners, who chained themselves outside the ExCeL centre in Stratford, had been charged by the Crown Prosecution Service with blocking a highway.
But the court heard evidence from human rights groups and arms trade experts explaining the nature and possible end destinations of the weapons on sale at the fair.
Witnesses described the role of the arms trade in facilitating the repressive Bahrani regime, in Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign over Yemen, and with the Turkey’s internal repression of its Kurdish population.
The judge said the evidence of illegal weapons sales had been left unchallenged by the prosecution and that such sales would potentially break arms control laws.
“[There is] clear, credible and largely unchallenged evidence from the expert witnesses of wrongdoing at DSEI and compelling evidence that it took place in 2015,” he said.
“It was not appropriately investigated by the authorities. This could be inferred from the responses of the police officers, that they did not take the defendants’ allegations seriously.”
He also said there was no evidence of an investigation by authorities into whether illegal arms were being sold at the trade show.
DSEI’s organisers say that compliance regulations were not breached in 2015 and that they continuously refine their compliance processes.
In a joint statement released straight after the judgement, the acquitted campaigners said: “Over the week, we have put DSEI and the arms trade on trial and we have proven them to be illegitimate. Our only regret is that we didn’t succeed in shutting down DSEI.
“We were compelled to try to prevent war, repression, torture and genocide and we stand by our actions.”
Isa Al-Aali (from Bahrain), Angela Ditchfield (from the UK), Lisa Butler (from the UK), Thomas Franklin (from the UK), Javier Gárate Neidhardt (from Chile), Susannah Mengesha (from the UK), Luis Tinoco Torrejon (from Peru) and Bram Vranken (from Belgium) all denied wilful obstruction of the highway.
Raj Chada and Adeela Khan, lawyers from the criminal defence team at Hodge Jones & Allen, represented five of the defendants.
Mr Chada said the Government was turning “a blind eye” to unlawful activity at DSEI.
“It is clear that there are no proper checks at DSEI from any state agency. The government has turned a blind eye not only to the unlawful activity at DSEI, but also to the consequences of a trade that is killing thousands in Yemen and elsewhere. It is shameful that the government did not act – and our clients felt that they had to,” he said.
Ms Khan added: “Critically, the government’s continued failings to stop the illegal exhibition of certain equipment used for torture or the sale of weapons to regimes that the UK knows are committing human rights abuses clearly demonstrates its inability to enforce its own law in this area. Our clients therefore feel justified in their action and make no apology for raising the public’s attention to this event.”
The ruling comes as the Government ignores calls from the House of Commons International Development Committee and the European Parliament to impose an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, which has been accused of commiting war crimes in its bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Sales of British bombs to Saudi Arabia surved by 100 times from £9 million to over £1 billion in the three months before DSEI took place, according to Government arms export licence statistics.
Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade said: “At the same time as the defendants were being arrested for peaceful protest, the arms dealers were working with civil servants to sell even more weapons.
“It should never have been campaigners in the dock this week, not when UK arms are being sold to dictatorships and human rights abusers, and when UK fighter jets and bombs have been so central to the destruction of Yemen.
“Arms fairs like DSEI can never be right or acceptable, and we all have a role to play in shutting them down for good.”
DSEI is held every two years in London’s docklands and facilitates deals between arms buyers and sellers. In 2015 it was attended by 34,000 delegates and 1,600 suppliers from 54 countries.
Attendees included “top level international military staff, major procurement officials, and the entire industry supply chain, from large prime contractors to supplying companies”, according to its website.
The more appalling the human rights record, the better the customer at London’s arms fair
A spokesperson for the organisers of DSEI told the Independent: “HMRC, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) and other Government agencies, hold responsibility for enforcing the law in respect of UK Export controls at DSEI. As organisers, we take compliance at DSEI seriously and are constantly working with these Government Departments and agencies to refine our compliance processes in order to ensure that they are as robust as possible. As a result of this close cooperation, and the processes put in place, compliance regulations were not breached at DSEI 2015.
“Representatives from HMRC, BIS and other agencies were present in the run up to and throughout DSEI 2015. They had free and totally unrestricted access to all exhibitors in order to undertake checks that all equipment, services, documentation and any other forms of promotion complied with UK, EU and international law. They were supported in this work by an internal DSEI compliance team. These checks took place with reference to products and services classified as Category A under the terms of the Export Control Act 2002.
“DSEI’s activities in respect of compliance, including the attendance of HMRC, BIS and all other relevant Government agencies at the event, are covered by the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Clarion, the Export Control Organisation and BIS. As such our access policies for both exhibitors and visitors have been developed following consultation with a number of government departments.
“All our exhibitors are contractually bound to ensure that they exhibit at DSEI in a manner which is compliant with all relevant arms control legislation. We are explicitly clear that any exhibitors or individuals found to be in breach of compliance regulations at DSEI will be immediately ejected.”
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DSEI arms fair trade protesters cleared as judge rules they were stopping ‘greater crime’
from International Business Times
by Ewan Palmer
Eight protesters who were arrested attempting to block a delivery of military equipment to an arms fair in east London have been cleared of all charges after a judge accepted their actions were based on the probability illegal weapons were being sold inside.
The defendants, five men and three women, were accused of wilful obstruction of the highway following the protest outside the Defence Security and Equipment International (DSEI) event at the ExCel centre in London’s Docklands in 2015.
During the trial at Stamford magistrates’ court, the defence said the activists were attempting to “uphold the rule of the law” by blocking access to the arms fair after it was found illegal weapons were sold there in previous years.
Kat Hobbs, coordinator of Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), told the court Bahrain had been invited by the UK government to previous DSEI exhibitions in 2009, 2013 and 2015 despite the regime using weapons against pro-democracy protests. There was also evidence of UK-manufactured arms being sold to Saudi Arabia to be used in attacks on Yemen, including BAE Systems fighter jets and Raytheon’s Paveway bombs.
One of the defendants, Thomas Franklin, 57, said he attempted to block access to the exhibition so weapons could not be sold to regimes that abuse human rights and the act was “in preparation for a crime”. He told the court: “In every single previous arms fair, that had been found to be happening. We have evidence of that. We have parliamentary reports, we have reports from Amnesty International, we have reports from Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, listing illegal weapons being sold.”
District Judge Angus Hamilton said the prosecution could not prove the defendants did not have a reasonable belief they could stop crime through their actions as there was “compelling evidence” that arms sales at DSEI were for repression and human rights abuse. He added: “It was not appropriately investigated by the authorities. This could be inferred from the responses of the police officers, that they did not take the defendants’ allegations seriously.”
Isa Al-Aali, Angela Ditchfield, Lisa Butler, Thomas Franklin, Javier Gárate Neidhardt, Susannah Mengesha, Luis Tinoco Torrejon and Bram Vranken have now been cleared of the charges against them. In a joint statement, they said: “We were compelled to try to prevent war, repression, torture and genocide and we stand by our actions.
“We do not believe that we should have been on trial this week and denounce the UK government’s complicity and actions in supporting the arms trade; and in perpetuating war and repression around the world. We oppose the sale of arms based on corporate greed and profit and seek radical change.
“We come from the UK, Bahrain, Belgium, Chile and Peru in the believe that as the arms trade takes place at a global scale, our resistance has to be global and it should have no borders. Over the week, we have put DSEI and the arms trade on trial and we have proven them to be illegitimate. Our only regret is that we didn’t succeed in shutting down DSEI.
“Our thoughts are with the people who suffer as a result of the arms trade and the survivors of repressive regimes, torture, war and conflict. We call on more people to join us in our efforts to shut down DSEI 2017 and take collective action to end the arms trade.”
A spokesperson for DSEI told IBTimes UK: “HMRC, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) and other Government agencies, hold responsibility for enforcing the law in respect of UK Export controls at DSEI. As organisers, we take compliance at DSEI seriously and are constantly working with these Government Departments and agencies to refine our compliance processes in order to ensure that they are as robust as possible. As a result of this close cooperation, and the processes put in place, compliance regulations were not breached at DSEI 2015.
“Representatives from HMRC, BIS and other agencies were present in the run up to and throughout DSEI 2015. They had free and totally unrestricted access to all exhibitors in order to undertake checks that all equipment, services, documentation and any other forms of promotion complied with UK, EU and international law. They were supported in this work by an internal DSEI compliance team. These checks took place with reference to products and services classified as Category A under the terms of the Export Control Act 2002.
“DSEI’s activities in respect of compliance, including the attendance of HMRC, BIS and all other relevant Government agencies at the event, are covered by the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Clarion, the Export Control Organisation and BIS. As such our access policies for both exhibitors and visitors have been developed following consultation with a number of government departments.
“All our exhibitors are contractually bound to ensure that they exhibit at DSEI in a manner which is compliant with all relevant arms control legislation. We are explicitly clear that any exhibitors or individuals found to be in breach of compliance regulations at DSEI will be immediately ejected.”
[More information from Campaign Against Arms Trade.]