What Case to Answer for the Six Charged under Terrorism Act?

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What Case to Answer for the Six Charged under Terrorism Act?

Report of the London Political Forum held on May 28:
The People’s Movement against War – The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy
The London Political Forum - The Next Meeting June 25

Showing of the film 'Jenin Jenin' from Palestine

The case against the six people who were arrested and charged under "anti-terrorism" legislation in December last year for supporting the struggle for democracy in Turkey continued at Kingston Crown Court on June 11. Anyone who has been following this case, the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC) reports, will know that within the last six months there have been very few developments.

The case has largely been characterised by bureaucratic incompetence, police harassment of the Turkish community and the family members of the accused and a total indifference and lack of sensitivity to the reality of Turkey.

Finally this week the defendants were given the chance after nearly seven months to put in a plea.

The indictments put to them by the court were the following:

Count 1 Belonging to a proscribed organisation, contrary to Section 11(1) and (3) of the Terrorism Act 2000.

It is alleged that between 28th March 2001 and 12th December 2002 that the defendants belonged to, or professed to belong to a proscribed organisation, namely the DHKP-C (Revolutionary Peoples’ Liberation Party- Front). This charge applies to all six.

Count 2 Facilitating the retention or control by or behalf of another person of terrorist property, contrary to Section 18(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000.

It is alleged that between 28th March 2001 and 12th December 2002 that one of the accused entered into or were otherwise concerned in an arrangement which facilitated the retention or control by or behalf of another person of terrorist property by keeping accounts from the sale of Vatan and Ekmek ve Adalet magazines and donations and giving instructions for the use of such monies for the purposes of the DHKP-C. (Please note that the magazines mentioned are entirely legal and available for purchase throughout Turkey and Europe and are in fact registered with the Republic of Turkey and have to pay tax to it.)

Count 3 Facilitating the retention or control by on behalf of another person of terrorist property, contrary to Section 18(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000.

It is alleged that between 28th March 2001 and 12th December 2002 that the accused entered into or were otherwise concerned in an arrangement which facilitated the retention or control by or behalf of another person of terrorist property by being in involved in the sale of Vatan and Ekmek ve Adalet magazines and the receipt and distribution of funds there from for the purposes of the DHKP-C. This charge applies to the remaining five of the six.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to all the indictments. The prosecution applied for a trial date for January 2004, which was opposed by the defence who asked for the date to be set for November of this year. The judge agreed and set a provisional date for 24th November. The prosecution made it known that in February of this year the police wrote to the governments of Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Bulgaria asking for information in the investigation of this case. To date the British authorities have only received half of the documents that they are supposed to receive from Turkey and the courts in Belgium and the Netherlands have only just given their intelligence agencies the go ahead to proceed with the request from Britain. The government of Bulgaria has only just replied to the Home Office and a delegation of British investigating officers is travelling to Germany next week. Even though the judge agreed to set a provisional date for the start of the trial it is likely that it will be adjourned until January of next year because the prosecution will seek an adjournment to prepare the paperwork they are to receive from the foreign jurisdictions. They claim that they will need more time to translate the documents and to screen them before they can be presented in public; they also say they will need to make several trips to these countries as well. They also hinted at the possibility of foreign witnesses attending the trial.

The defence objected to the timescale that the prosecution is working to by asserting that although the defendants were arrested in December of last year they had been under investigation for much longer.

Most of them had been arrested and then released on previous occasions and some of them had also had their homes raided and searched as well, so the police have had ample time to prepare a case against them. Whilst the prosecution disagreed with this they did admit that the defendants had been under investigation for the last two years. One of the defendants still has to sign on at a police station and has been subjected to abuse from the police officers on duty and made to wait up to three hours on some occasions. An attempt to change this bail condition on those grounds was unsuccessful.

The judge ordered the prosecution to provide the defence with a case summary, which they still have not done, by early July. The defendants are next in court on July 25 for a directions hearing. All the defendants still remain out on bail.

The case highlights how the so-called "anti-terrorism" legislation is being used to criminalise legitimate political activity, the arbitrary authority being given to the police and state authorities and the way these authorities attempt to inculcate helplessness and hopelessness among the people. It also underlines that the government legislates on such important questions without regard to justice and to the will of the people, also in a quite arbitrary fashion. It is important that progressive people take a stand against this injustice and organise to turn this situation around.

The London Political Forum held on May 28 continued discussions on the implications of the Anglo-American aggression against Iraq. The principal focus was the erosion of democratic and political rights, and the transformation of the parliamentary representative democracy structure even more into an anti-democratic rubber stamp for arbitrary decision-making and the further concentration of power and authority in fewer hands.

Two speakers, Michael Chant of the London Region of RCPB(ML) and Les Levidow of the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), elaborated two issues. They spoke of the crisis of parliamentary democracy in which the people have no say in major issues affecting their lives – especially seen in the decision, against massive opposition nationally and internationally, to invade Iraq. Secondly they condemned the consistent erosion of the right to political participation – embodied in "anti-terrorism" laws, which in Britain have been perfected over many years, and most recently contained in the 2000 Terrorism Act and the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act of 2001.

Summing up the experiences of the People’s Assembly for Peace, the meeting passed a resolution addressed to the convenors of the Assembly. After discussion, it was thought that it should be an open resolution to all activists in the peace and anti-war movement. It reads as follows:

Recognising that the formation of a People’s Assembly for Peace was a momentous step in the movement against war;

Recognising the crisis of legitimacy of parliamentary democracy;

Recognising that the struggle of the anti-war movement is continuing, with its consciousness that occupation is not liberation;

Recognising that the people’s movement to defend democratic rights and provide them with a guarantee also needs to be stepped up as the "war is brought back home";

That this meeting of LPF calls for a recall of the People’s Assembly for Peace, in which it is the delegates who are in control of the People’s Assembly as a sovereign body and who are empowered to set its agenda, so that it can develop its role as a tribune of the people and embody the people’s will for peace and the affirmation of their rights.

See Below for Next Meeting

Following is the invitation to the meeting.

The London Political Forum

invites you to join in a discussion on

The Struggle for a Living Wage

Wednesday, June 25, 2003 - 7.30 p.m.

Marx House, 37a Clerkenwell Green, EC1R 0DU

(Nearest Tube: Farringdon)

The struggle for a living wage has been taken up as a matter of urgency by many sections of working people. In the course of this struggle, they are releasing their initiative and building unity with other workers. With their actions the lowest paid workers are also building their own unity in a situation where workers are often contracted out, flexibility is demanded of them or they are on short-term contracts, and they are treated as having very limited rights. These workers' low wages are used to keep the overall level of wages to a minimum. The struggle of low paid workers is a struggle of all workers ~ an injury to one is an injury to all!

Workers are demanding that a livelihood be guaranteed as a right. This is also the case with pensioners, who are also in action to demand that the government guarantees their standard of living, including their right to food, clothing and shelter. It is also a pressing scandal that hundreds of thousands of workers have been fleeced by the systematic robbery associated with the closure of pension schemes. The pensioners are demanding that society should meet their claims on it as of right, as human beings and as veteran workers.

Speakers from those in struggle for a living wage and from the pensioners' movement will speak of their experience and expose the conditions of these sections of society.

Come and be part of this debate and speak out! Join in the building of the alternative!

Speakers from: Whipps Cross Hospital Unison (where health workers have been on strike, campaigning for a living wage), from the Pensioners’ Movement, and others to be confirmed.

The London Political Forum can be contacted at: 170 Wandsworth Road, London SW8 2LA.

Tel: 020 7627 0599; e-mail londonpf2003@yahoo.co.uk; website http://www.geocities.com/londonpf2003