From The Times
April 30, 2009
Police pay £85,000 and apologise to arrested protesters
Sean O’Neill, Crime Editor
Scotland Yard has paid £85,000 damages to five people who were arrested,
imprisoned for 40 hours and prosecuted after a protest outside a London
embassy.
In a written apology to the activists, the Metropolitan Police said: “It
is accepted that your arrest was unlawful and that any force used on you
during your arrest was therefore an assault and battery.”
Jeremie Fernandez, who was one of the group assembled outside the
Mexican Embassy, claimed that he had been detained in a deliberate
attempt to silence protest.
A senior Met officer wrote to each of the five saying: “I am in no doubt
about the significant effect that this matter has had on you and on your
democratic right to peaceful protest. You should not have been arrested
and I apologise for this.”
The case was settled this week in advance of a High Court hearing and
comes at a time when the Met’s public order tactics are under increased
scrutiny after the G20 protests.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has received more than 150
complaints about the policing of the G20. It is investigating three
complaints, including the death of Ian Tomlinson, 47, a newspaper
vendor, who collapsed minutes after being struck and pushed to the
ground by an officer.
The demonstrators who won compensation were at the embassy in Central
London in October 2006 to protest against the shooting dead of a
journalist, Bradley Will, in Oaxaca City. The three men and two women
were arrested, handcuffed and held in police cells. They were denied
bail before being charged with public order offences and tried at City
of Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The case against one protester was thrown out and the remaining four
were acquitted. They immediately began civil actions against the
Metropolitan Police Commissioner alleging wrongful arrest, false
imprisonment and assault.
The force said in its apology: “The policing of public order events and
demonstrations . . . requires a careful balance of the rights and
freedoms of often conflicting interests and necessitates officers making
difficult decisions under notable pressure. In this case it is clear
that balance was not achieved.”
Mr Fernandez, 32, said: “We were jumped on by police officers during a
peaceful protest, handcuffed, locked up for 40 hours, denied police bail
and then dragged through the criminal courts on false charges — all in
an attempt to silence our protest.”
Mr Fernandez received £25,000 and the other four £15,000 each.
Http://www.timesonl
Thursday, 30 April 2009
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