News from London- Plane Stupid in court...

Last week, five Plane Stupid activists faced the judicial music for a "we've climbed onto the roof of the Houses of Parliament to highlight the Department for Transport being in bed with BAA" stunt.

The judge found 'em guilty, but also that it was reasonable for them to have concluded as they did.

One of the Plane Stupiders sent us this:

'We're delighted by the outcome of our trial. Our defence against the charge was 'the use of reasonable force to prevent a crime', but because we didn't use any violence in carrying out our action, the magistrate ruled that our defence did not apply, meaning we were guilty of trespass. But both the magistrate and the prosecution counsel accepted that it was reasonable for us to conclude that there was a criminal conspiracy going on at the Department for Transport during the Heathrow Consultation, given the facts we understood at the time.

Plane Stupid have now officially requested a police investigation into our allegations of criminal misconduct and conspiracy against at least two of the civil servants named in the Freedom of Information documents we relied on in our defence case. The judge awarded us small fines (£365 each) in explicit recognition of the fact that we honestly believed we were acting in the public interest, and that other democratic remedies had been closed off to us.

The same cannot possibly be said of the DfT officials who worked hand in hand with BAA, falsifying data in order to deceive the public about the environmental impact of the Heathrow expansion plans. Plane Stupid has very little faith in the ability of the police to bring Government officials to justice of course, so we will continue our campaign of responsible citizenship and civil disobedience until all plans for airport expansion in the UK are scrapped.'

MCFly will carry information shortly about any imminent Stop Expansion at Manchester Airport meeting.