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Rabel Christian Civil Liberties.
The WebPaper carries news stories, opinion pieces and campaign articles relating to civil liberty, religious freedom and aspects of the growth of totalitarian and one-world governmental systems.
We are a conservative yet radical evangelical organisation, yet we also carry submissions from those of other faiths, where appropriate.

21st September 2009

Conspirators Beware!

Mark Hanson

Guido Fawkes is perhaps the most well-known conspirator ever, at least to those in the UK.
No crime had been committed, yet he and his associates were tried and executed for making plans to blow up Parliament.
This trial was carried out under common law, and until 1977 the conspiracy laws were un-codified and open to interpretation by the courts, under usual judicial principles such as precedent.
In 1977, the conspiracy laws were written on to the statute book by Parliament.
Rabel fully agrees that an intention to commit a heinous crime, and the beginning of the process to carry it out, should be covered by the legalistic framework, yet there have been two recent examples where the authorities have been unproductively heavy-handed in enforcing these.
In April 2009, 114 people were arrested in Nottingamshire under the suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass. These were peaceful protesters who intended to demonstrate at E.On’s Nottinghamshire power station. The protesters were later released without charge, but in the swoop that led to their arrest the police stormed the building they were in and treated the protesters in such a way that it would have been reasonable to presume they were going to commit a serious terrorist atrocity.
Another example is the treatment of two teenagers who police suspected were planning to carry out a “Columbine”-style school massacre. After arrest and imprisonment, on remand, of the schoolboys for 6 months (a time in which these highly-disturbed, but not criminal, youngsters were in company with those whose view of the law was aberrant), the boys were cleared by a jury in 45 minutes. It remains to be seen what effect this hard beating treatment at the hands of the authorities will have, but it cannot be positive.
What has happened? Laws intended to prevent the blowing up of Parliament or other such atrocity, are being used excessively to target political activists and minors. It deserves parliamentary debate.