BBC Newsnigft has finally taken notice of the way in which the police and criminal prosecution system are attempting to criminalise protest, in particular the protests against the Israeli invasion of Gaza last year:
It turns out a large proportion of the people being arrested were Muslims under anti-terrorism laws, rather than under say less stringent public nuisance laws, were tricked into pleadin guilty on the pretence that this would get them lighter sentences when in fact the judges in their cases had already decided to set examples and were not allowed to share evidence with each other, each case being treated seperately. Though several of these cases were later thrown out, this still has a chilling effect on the freedom to demonstrate, to know that you could be sentenced under terrorism law and hence could face jail time for “crimes” that in a non-political context would not be crimes at all or at worst punishable with community service.
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