Campaigns Disarmament

Pardon the Peaceful Protestors

Scottish pensioner, 79 year old Brian Quail has been jailed for protesting Scotland’s illegal nuclear weapons.

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Retired Latin teacher and grandfather, Brian was arrested outside the UK Trident nuclear weapon storage facility at Coulport, along with 66 year old Angela Zelter, founding member of Trident Ploughshares. Sam Donaldson,29, a community worker from Hull, Almudena Izquierdo Olmo from Madrid and Juan Carlos Navarro Diaz 46, a librarian from the Canary Islands were also arrested, but accepted bail conditions that prevented them from returning to the camp, and were released.

Brian Quail is being held at HMP Moss and Angie Zelter is being held at HMP & YOI Corton Vale. Please write letters of support for the peaceful protestors, who we believe are being held contrary to sections 10 and 11 of the ECHR which guarantees the right to peaceful protest. Mr Quail has serious health issues and imprisoning him is, in our opinion, disproportionate to his offence and may damage his health.

You can send cards or letters of support to:

Brian Quail 

HMP Prison Low Moss

Crosshill Road

Bishopbriggs

Glasgow G64 2BQ

And

Angela Zelter 

21/1 Peebles House

HMP & YOI Corton Vale 

Corton Vale

Stirling FK9 5NU

 

The protesters were rightfully exercising their freedom of expression in opposing, as described by a Trident Ploughshares spokesperson; “the active deployment of a hideous weapons system that clearly breaches the Geneva Convention, which no less than 122 countries worldwide want to prohibit and eliminate, and which is rejected by the overwhelmingly majority of Scottish parliamentarians both at Holyrood and Westminster.”

Our legal entitlement as citizens to object actions of this government is fundamental to our democracy. Peacefully protesting is a traditional way of exercising those rights. Imprisoning pensioners for doing so infringes on your rights.

Ungagged urge politicians to get involved. Peaceful protest of internationally recognised illegal weapons should not mean a custodial sentence. We also urge Amnesty International to intervene, and the United Nations, who recently declared nuclear weapons illegal, to object to the jailing of these protestors.

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Contact your elected representative to let ask them to lend their support here, sign the petition, and leave us a comment below to show your support.

 



 

4 thoughts on “Pardon the Peaceful Protestors

  1. Solidarity with Brian and Angela. Peaceful protest is a right, it’s ridiculous that pensioners can be thrown in prison for defending us peacefully.

  2. When peaceful pensioner protestors are imprisoned, you know the priorities of the government. Nae nukes, bairns not bombs, flowers not firearms!

  3. It is completely unacceptable in a democracy that citizens be jailed for peacefully protesting. That is the preserve of demagogues, dictators and authoritarian states. This offence is only compounded by the advanced age of the people being victimised in this completely unacceptable way. It is an affront to democracy and to human decency which has no place in the Scottish legal system or indeed in any civilised country. Whoever issued such an outrageous judgement MUST be immediately removed from the bench, to be replaced by someone at least vaguely in touch with community standards and cognisant of the meaning of the term ‘duty of care.’ This kind of judicial activism simply cannot and WILL NOT be tolerated!

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