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    Craig Murray: The Big Chill 📂 Archived Message

    Posted by sashimi on July 17, 2025, 8:25 pm

    Novara Media sn(e)aking around, as per.

    17 Jul 2025

    The three female activists arrested on Tuesday for the direct action against the
    Leonardo weapons factory in Edinburgh are being treated as terrorists. They have
    been held now for 40 hours, without either being charged or being brought before
    a judge, under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act.

    They are from the organisation Shut Down Leonardo, which targets the firm which
    makes parts for the F-35 jets that massacre children in Gaza.

    I spent all yesterday trying to organise their legal defence. By 8am I had found
    the right solicitor and briefed them on the case, including the crucial judgment
    by Judge Chamberlain in London's High Court on 4 July.

    Chamberlain's judgment stated explicitly that future direct action protest, even
    where allegedly criminal, would not be aggravated to terrorism. It was Palestine
    Action, not the act of protest, which was proscribed.

    But the three women are being held incommunicado in Govan police station, and
    there is simply no way to get information to them to ask for the solicitor I had
    briefed. The solicitors themselves went to the police station in Edinburgh and
    were blanked.

    The solicitors were told they would be informed once the police knew what was
    happening. The police never got back to them, and did not even tell them the
    women had been moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow.

    What has almost certainly happened is that the women have been allocated the
    duty solicitor. This solicitor will not know of Lord Chamberlain's judgment of 4
    July nor any of the background.

    Equally crucially, it is extremely improbable that the duty solicitor would sit
    alongside the women during 48 long hours of interrogation. Frequently those
    arrested never see the duty solicitor at all, and just get a brief telephone
    consultation.

    Once the duty solicitor has been assigned, another solicitor cannot get access,
    except at the direct request of those arrested. Who are held incommunicado.
    -- Cont'd at https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/07/the-big-chill/

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