Political Activist Discusses Free Speech Trial

There were nine leading Zionists who complained to the police, and

sure enough, about a dozen police raided my flat and

arrested me for a tweet. And my only response at 6:30

in the morning was, "This is Orwellian." And so it proved.

This is the action of a police state.

The police referred to a tweet where a Zionist had said, "Just

say three words, I support Hamas," which is a way of entrapping

people. I said, "I support the Palestinians.

That is enough." But then I went on to say, "I support Hamas

against the Israeli army." And when the police asked me about this,

and doesn't

this mean I support Hamas, I said, "No, I would support the devil against the

Israeli army. If anyone is a devil, it's the IDF."

Judges do what the ruling class and the government wants.

They make a pretense at being independent, but the reality is they're

as independent as a dog on a tight leash.

I knew that when it came to the final address to the jury, my

barrister would stay within the professional guidelines.

I'm not a professional barrister. I'm a political activist.

So I took the address. The jury I think were indifferent

when I started off. When I finished, the judge retired the jury,

and then they came back in record time, two hours and 11 minutes, and

that includes a lunch break. So it obviously didn't take them very much

time to make their minds up. It was not guilty, and the court erupted, of

course.

What punishment were you facing?

14 years in prison. There've been so far seven of

these trials, each carrying 14 years.

There's been four acquittals and three hung juries.

That says to me that British juries are remarkably

unwilling to send people to prison for exercising the

right to freedom of speech, despite what judges say.

So my advice very strongly to people is take the final

speech 'cause your lawyers will stick to the rules.

You don't stick to the rules. You say what you want to say, and damn

the consequences.