Two years in prison for holding a placard ?
Tuesday, 15 August 2023 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bens_dadhttps://us11.campaign-archive.com/?u=f1c42fae5214b3ee59aab75ab&id=71388df9c5
The Solicitor General wants to jail a retired social worker for holding up a placard outside the Old Bailey.
From an email from the Good Law Project:
The Solicitor General wants to jail a retired social worker for holding up a placard outside the Old Bailey.
From an email from the Good Law Project:
In March, Warner stood outside a court in London where climate protesters were on trial, and held up a sign reading: “Jurors: you have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to your conscience.”
This legal right was established in 1670, after a judge imprisoned a jury for reaching a verdict he would not accept. The incident gave rise to a new ruling that juries have the freedom to reach decisions independently. Yet holding this sign was enough to put Warner in front of a judge at the Old Bailey – a building with a plaque at the entrance that declares the same legal right.
The Solicitor General, who has written to Warner, acts as chief legal adviser to the Government.
We believe the potential proceedings against Warner form part of the Government’s chilling campaign to crack down on peaceful protest.
Threatening Warner with contempt of court undermines the role of juries and attacks the right to free speech – two fundamental pillars of democracy in Britain, which defend us from authoritarianism.
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