Young, Muslim and jailed for Gaza protest

Following the London demonstrations in January 2009 against Israel's onslaught on Gaza, there has been a co-ordinated attempt by the police and courts to criminalise protestors and to scare people from demonstrating in the future, as reported by BBC Newsnight.

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On 30 March, BBC’s Newsnight carried a report which exposed the persecution by the police and courts of protestors at the demonstrations in January 2009 against Israel’s attack on Gaza.

A combination of interviews and video footage revealed heavy handed and often violent policing, misleading use of evidence and ludicrously inappropriate sentencing.

The case of Jake Smith is particularly telling. He was charged with violent disorder but the police were forced to drop all evidence days before the case. The reason? His solicitor Matt Foot had been able to establish two things. First the video evidence presented was not actually of Jake. Second there was footage of Jake being assaulted by police on 10 January.

Matt Foot had only been given access to police footage the day before the case was to come to court. He was able to locate the pictures of Jake being attacked only because the incident had been spotted on YouTube previously.

The Newsnight report implies there has been a co-ordinated attempt to criminalise protestors and particularly to scare people off future protests. And, as Joanna Gilmore, who researches law cases, told Newsnight, a shocking feature this case was that almost all of those accused were Muslims and they were treated by the police as if they were guilty of terrorist charges.

The Newsnight report is available to view for a limited period here… The report on the Gaza protestors begins just under 22 minutes into the programme.

There is a continuing campaign for the release of more than twenty protestors who have been imprisoned and for all outstanding charges to be dropped.