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Parliament war protester jailed
over £600 fine
Duncan Gardham
London
Telegraph
Thursday Aug 23, 2007
The first person
to be convicted of organising a demonstration within an exclusion
zone around Parliament Square has been jailed for refusing to
pay his fine.
Milan Rai was sentenced to 14 days in Wandsworth prison, south
London, after refusing to pay fines totalling £600 when
he appeared at Horseferry magistrates court.
In October 2005, he was arrested opposite Downing Street along
with the vegan chef Maya Evans after the pair read out the names
of Iraqis and British service personnel who had been killed in
Iraq since the 2003 invasion in a protest beside the Cenotaph.
Mr Rai was convicted of organising an unauthorised protest within
a kilometre of Parliament, fined £350 and ordered to pay
£150 costs.
(Article continues below)
His conviction came under the Serious Organised Crime and Police
Act introduced in April 2005, which made organising unauthorised
demonstrations within the one-kilometre exclusion zone punishable
by up to 51 weeks in prison and a £2,500 fine, and participating
such demonstrations punishable by a fine of up to £1,000.
In May 2007 the pair were convicted again, this time for organising
and participating in a weekend of demonstration marking the second
anniversary of the Allied onslaught on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
Dozens of people erected tents on the grass in Parliament Square
for the "No More Fallujahs'' demonstration and five others
were also arrested.
At his second trial Mr Rai was fined £100 and on both occasions
he declared that he would refuse to pay his fines on grounds of
conscience.
Mr Rai, Miss Evans and two others lost a High Court battle last
year to have their convictions overturned. But Lord Justice Waller
and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones ruled it was accepted that the new
law was "compatible'' with human rights legislation.
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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