British student protestors face trial

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184062.html

The justice system in Britain, known to boast of backing freedom of speech and human rights, is to put pro-democracy students on trial for shouting their anger at government's invasion of their education.

After the massive anti-tuition fee demonstrations in London back in December, the British police launched what a participant described as a “media witch-hunt”, releasing pictures of the students they called “violent thugs” and calling on the public to collaborate with the security forces on their identification.

Now, the 'identified' students will face the court to pay the price for voicing their viewpoints on the embattled policies the government has been pursuing.

One of the 'offenders' to face trial is Alfie Meadows, the student who was beaten by the police, lost consciousness and ended up in the intensive care unit for trying to escape a police 'kettle' in London.

The police have charged the 21-year-old with engaging in violent disorder during the tuition fee protests. Meadows faces five years in prison over the charges.

“Alfie needed emergency brain surgery to save his life after suffering serious injuries at the demonstration of December 9th, the same demonstration at which I was twice dragged out of my wheelchair by police officers,” says jody McIntyre, who recently saw his complaint of officers' assault and brutality rejected by the Metropolitan Police.

Scotland Yard's directorate of professional standards (DPS) claimed officers had pulled McIntyre from his wheelchair to protect him in a “volatile, dangerous situation during violent clashes ” at the student demonstrations.

Violent disorder is defined as “where three or more people (including the accused) use or threaten unlawful violence and, the conduct of them taken together is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness to fear for their personal safety,” McIntyre wrote in an article for the Independent.

“In fact, there was a group of three or more people who put me in fear of my personal safety on December 9th. They were wearing hi-vis jackets, with the words 'Metropolitan Police' emblazoned on the front. The police have since investigated themselves, and find the actions to be 'lawful and justifiable',” he added.

Hundreds of demonstrators are to hold a rally outside Westminster City magistrates court where Meadows and 43 others will be put on trial over the student protests last year.

Meadows has “strongly” denied his charges saying “I exercised my right to protest against something I feel strongly about”.

The Scotland Yard has claimed those facing trial have broken the law accusing them of endangering “those who wish to protest peacefully by committing criminal offences”.

One of Mr Meadows' solicitors, Sarah McSherry, said she had seen the use of "tactics which infringe the right to peaceful protest, privacy and freedom of expression, assembly and movement" over the last few months.

"These include the photographing of protesters, the use of kettling to detain them and obtain their personal details, aggressive policing, particularly to enforce kettles, which places protesters, like Alfie Meadows, at risk of significant harm and the criminalization of, particularly young, protesters," she added.

UK Govt. democratic legitimacy in doubt

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183888.html

The most senior Anglican Church priest has questioned the democratic legitimacy of the British government, condemning its terrifying policies “for which no one voted”.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the coalition's reforms to education, NHS and the benefits system have left the public in a state of “fear”.

He said the “Big Society” plans pursued by Prime Minister David Cameron are a “painfully stale” slogan slamming the government for blaming every difficulty the nation is facing on the deficit it inherited from Labour.

"It isn't enough to respond with what sounds like a mixture of 'This is the last government's legacy,' and 'We'd like to do more, but just wait until the economy recovers a bit'," he wrote in an article for the New Statesman magazine.

Williams said in the article that voters are feeling “anxiety and anger” because the coalition has not sought “proper public argument” on its policies.

"Government badly needs to hear just how much plain fear there is around such questions at present," Williams said in the article.

He said part of the “widespread suspicion” is fueled by the Big Society plans that do not specify how voluntary organizations would “pick up the responsibilities shed by government”.

Williams added that the coalition policies on the NHS have resulted in “bafflement and indignation” among the public.

“With remarkable speed, we are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no one voted,” he said.

“At the very least, there is an understandable anxiety about what democracy means in such a context,” he added.

Williams also hit out at the “punitive responses to alleged abuses of the [welfare] system” saying such comments along with the cuts in the welfare system are a "quiet resurgence of the seductive language of 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor".

He then said an “open probing” is required in the education following the hasty approval of the government's free-school reforms through the parliament last summer and the tripling of university tuition fees.

He said Britain needs a long-term education policy "that will deliver the critical tools for democratic involvement, not simply skills that serve the economy".

As for the real intention behind the government's plans, Williams said Cameron's Big Society proposals are an “opportunistic” cover to enable the coalition to push ahead with its cutbacks.

'British medics should spy on patients' – UK Govt.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183748.html

The British government will instruct doctors to identify patients at risk of being drawn into violent extremism as part of its strategy for combating terrorism.

Home Secretary, Theresa May is due to spell out the controversial move, which could threaten patient confidentiality, the daily The Independent reported.

The controversial “Prevent” strategy will also tighten the government and its spying apparatuses' grip on the nation with adding medical professionals to other groups who are spying on ordinary people in a “police state.”

“So doctors will be spying on us and deciding if we have the potential to be a terrorist, and neighbors can spy on us, and teachers can spy on us, and work colleagues can spy on us,” says an ordinary British.

The strategy also includes guidelines to strongly tackle the spread of Islamic teachings all across societies, particularly in prisons, where many Muslims are holed up on accusations of preaching extremism, according to the report.

The conservative-led government has already launched attempts to crackdown on all Muslim groups in the British community to bring them in line with its so-called “British mainstream values.”

Britain, itself, has been accused of abusing human rights by the UN Human Rights Council for bringing in three striking laws against online free speech.

Based on the laws adopted by Britain, France and New Zealand one can be booted off the Internet for repeated copyright infringement.

Frank La Rue, the UN special Rapporteur for human rights has said he is "deeply concerned" about proposals to create a centralised system for cutting people off from Internet access in those countries as a punishment for copyright infringement.

“Cutting off Internet access as a response to copyright infringement is disproportionate and thus a violation of article 19, paragraph 3, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," he said.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron has gone too far in labeling Muslims who follow the Sharia law, the basic rules of their faith, as extremists who need to be tackled.

Cameron had already announced his intention to abolish the term “state multiculturalism” altogether, meaning there should be two groups of people in the society.

“Those who are with us, we advocate and those who are not, they have no place in the community,” this belief is implied in the core of the British Prime Minister's strategy.

The so-called "Prevent" strategy also implies that “all convicted terrorists will have their beliefs countered while in jail and other offenders who could have fallen foul of "preachers of hate" will be tracked after their release.”

Pre-crime arrests challenge UK police

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/178021.html

British police are using an anti-terror legislation as a pretext to crack down on dissent on one hand, and to fight for funding on the other, warn pro-democracy activists.

The warning comes after local police forces launched a widespread arrest campaign in the run-up to last week's royal wedding in London, British media reported.

Police arrested dozens of people before heir to the throne Prince William prepared to wed Kate Middleton, but they were forced to release them without charges shortly afterwards.

A legal watchdog has advised victims of a wave of recent activists' arrest to “sue and try and force a judicial review” of cases, where police failed to charge the nabbed activists.

The Legal Defence and Monitoring Group (LDMG) said the arrests could have been made as part of a police fight for funding in the wake of the coalition government's spending review program, which enforces big budget cuts on the police forces.

"Usually police only arrest people if they have a reason to charge them, but at recent protests the arrest-to-charge rate has been really low”, said LDMG member Andy Meinke.

"We've been seeing very, very high numbers for minor public order offences and it has been happening since the police started pushing to protect their funding - it smacks of them trying to make the situation worse to protect their own", he said.

The arrest by plain-clothes officers of a man in Soho Square taking part in a republican "zombie wedding" on April 29 and of three event organisers including activist Chris Knight the previous day was a matter of particular concern, Meinke added.

"They've been talking about preventing a breach of the peace with some of these arrests, but legally it's very clear that it has to be in response to an imminent and directed threat of violence."

"We would encourage anyone who has been arrested and released without charge to look at challenging actions they believe to have been unwarranted, either through suing or forcing a judicial review", said the legal adviser.

The activists' arrest puts a big question mark before the claims that the UK is an advocate of democracy, freedom of expression and human rights.

The UK, if it was a democracy, has lost its credibility to be a democratic state, said the activists.

There have never taken place so many democratic activists' arrests, anywhere in the world, not only on suspicion of thought-crime, speech-crime, or political assembly crime, but now on offences defined by the British police as pre-crime.

Chants of revolution echo in Britain

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/162618.html

Thousands of protesters pour into the streets in London and Manchester, again, to shout their anger at the government's policies, with some clashing with police.

The National Union of Students (NUS) and Trade Unions Congress (TUC) joined forces in a protest against the increase in university tuition fees, spending and education cuts, and job losses, with a group chanting "Revolution, revolution", British media reported.

British students and trade unionists broke through police lines in central London and were chased by an enhanced number of police forces to the city center where officers later ''kettled'' a group of angry protesters and arrested six people.

In Manchester, general secretary of the UCU lecturers' union, Sally Hunt addressed the rally, saying that the government was actually at "war with young people" and "betraying" an entire generation.

She attacked the government for raising tuition fees in England to a new upper limit of £9,000 per year and for scrapping education maintenance allowances for college students.

In London, with banners such as "Still angry, still here," protesters sent the message that the campaign against higher fees and university spending cuts had not disappeared.

Saturday's rallies have been the latest in a series of demonstrations and occupations by students.

On the day MPs voted to raise tuition fees, there were angry scenes on the streets of London as thousands of students marched through the capital.

Violent clashes erupted between student protesters and police outside Parliament where police "kettled" them for hours and arrested dozens of people while several others were injured.

A large group of protesters in London left the main venue for the Egyptian embassy on Saturday where they expressed strong solidarity with the Egyptian people in their struggle for freedom and change.

One slogan being brandished in London drew an analogy between international events and the UK, declaring: "Ben Ali, Mubarak… Cameron, you are next."

The protesters were referring to Tunisia where people toppled president Ben Ali's government and to Egypt where people have been coming out in their thousands to demand that president Mubarak relax his grip on power and allow for a fundamental change in the Egyptian society.

Dirty secret policing details revealed

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/160720.html


A former British undercover police officer has disclosed “grey and murky” details about secret policing including sexual entanglements with members of target groups.

Mark Kennedy, former Metropolitan Police officer who lived undercover among environmental activists for seven years said he was involved in “wrong” sexual relations with two women members of a radical environment group admitting at least 15 other agents had similar relations when posing as activists.

Kennedy told the Daily Mail he was ordered by the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) to infiltrate radical environmental groups in 2003.

The 41-year-old who was married with two children, now faces questions over the relationships as he was, in fact, deceiving the women involved.

Kennedy claimed the atmosphere has been in a fashion that he and others were drawn into the relationships.

“I was offered sex repeatedly. And I was not the only undercover operator having a relationship but our handlers never asked,” he said.

He added the source of the problem is “the whole undercover police operation” where “there seems to be no guidelines, no rules - I was pretty much left to fend for myself.”

Kennedy, who escaped to the US after his cover was blown by green activists, has apparently hired private security guards over fears for his life.

Police seeks intelligence on UK protests

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/160647.html


Scotland Yard appears to be planning a major crackdown on students during an upcoming wave of protests as its counter-terrorism command has asked universities for related intelligence.

The force's counter-terrorism unit has contacted universities in London, demanding their cooperation before student leaders go ahead with their pledge to organize occupations and demonstrations targeting town halls and civic buildings.

An officer for the command's Prevent Programme charged with coping with extremism sent an email to universities saying the Met expects a “renewed vigor” in protests against government's spending cuts which could target finance departments.

"I would be grateful if in your capacity at your various colleges that should you pick up any relevant information that would be helpful to all of us to anticipate possible demonstrations or occupations, please forward it onto me," the email read.

According to a statement by the Met, the email sent to more than 20 higher education centers in London, including King's and Imperial College, “advises contacts to consider contingency planning to minimize disruption to colleges, and for information that could help anticipate and address possible occupations."

The statement claimed the officer has not acted in his capacity as a member of the Counter Terrorism Command when sending the advice to the universities.

Student leaders have promised major action plans for the end of January, which could equal in their scale to the massive anti tuition fee rallies in London and elsewhere last year which saw more than 50 universities' buildings occupied by students.

Co-founder of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts Michael Chessum, who was involved in calling last year's protests, said they are “determined to keep the pressure on the government.”

Chessum also said a number of major trade unions, including Unite and the GMB, have thrown their weight behind the planned rallies in Manchester and London at the end of this month adding, “we are again expecting tens of thousands of people.”

Activists are also planning an “education strike” in London three days before the coordinated action in Manchester and London on January 29.

British govt. tightens grip on Britons

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159487.html


The UK government is tightening grip on the British people in various aspects of their lives from economy to social liberties, education, health and security.

The government's policies including its austerity drive which covers each and every corners of the people's being, the rise in university tuition fees and cuts to higher education, police schemes to ban protests altogether, which is considered as a serious blow to the so-called democracy, imposing restrictions on how and who votes, again considered as depriving a person from its inalienable right as part of the nation's human rights, giving permission to police forces to sneak through people's life and the most humiliating of these the “control orders” which prompted an international cry and call for them to be abolished.

International human rights campaigners have unanimously condemned the British government for carrying out one of the “most serious violations” of natural injustice in any developed democracy by renewing the so-called control orders.

The 'control order' was produced by the UK Home Secretary to restrict an individual's liberty for the alleged purpose of “protecting members of the public from a risk of terrorism”.

The restrictions involved in control orders include what the person can use or process, his/her place of work, place of residence, whom he/she speaks to, and where he/she can travel.

Furthermore, the person can be ordered to surrender his passport, let the police visit his/her home at any time, report to officials at a specific time and place, and allow himself/herself to be electronically tagged so his movements can be tracked.

The British government, meanwhile, used a European court ruling as a pretext recently to ban prisoners who are serving long-term sentences from voting in the elections.

Prime Minister David Cameron has even said that he was willing to ban all prisoners from voting apart from what the European court has instructed.

The restrictions on the British begin here.

The UK politicians and diplomats have been selling the claim that their system is a democracy and they respect human rights as the core of humanity.

But, what's happening on the ground appears to be to the contrary. The UK was the scene of the most violent protests recently.

Tens of thousands of student protesters from universities, colleges and schools marched across the UK in protests against the huge hikes in tuition fees, together with the scrapping of Educational Maintenance Allowance and proposed cuts in college funding.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson referred to the level of violence in the protests, saying that he does not rule out banning all future protests across the country.

The Londoners are witnessing a police state in their doorsteps these days.

The government has beefed up security in and around the capital city. The security threat level for London's transport system including airports, train and subway stations, ports and roads has raised from substantial to severe, turning the city to a blockhouse rather than a secure place to live in freely.

The most humiliating of these measures, which are aimed at having control over the people at a time when they are angered by hard economic conditions, are police schemes to collect people's personal data.

According to reports, British police have been secretly collecting people's personal information whenever they contacted police to report a crime.

Police demand stop and search power

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/157909.html


The British police have demanded that the government allow them more power by law to stop and search people even without suspect evidence.

Senior police officers in Britain have suggested that a new 'stop and search' bill as a counter-terrorism measure should be approved by law-makers for them to be able to better protect the public.

The Home Secretary Theresa May ruled out Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows counter-terrorism stops without suspicion, after European judges issued a verdict about a related case that was deemed against human rights.

However, the Metropolitan force officers who lead the UK fight against terrorism, say that a more powerful 'stop and search' legal permission is necessary, especially during specific periods when the public is in greater danger from terrorists.

They have mentioned that such periods concern events such as the 2012 London Olympics, state occasions such as trooping the colour, and major summits such as the G20 when held in the UK.

Currently, section 43 of the Terrorism Act allows searches, but an officer must have reasonable suspicion for the stop to be lawful.

The 'stop and search' power issue is a very controversial one since it could breech the rights of ethnic minority Britons, which in turn would boost racial discrimination in the UK.

It is believed that Section 44 fell into disrepute because it failed to lead to the capture of a single terrorist after 100,000 stop-and-searches, and it was used in some cases against protesters and photographers, the Guardian writes.

"Where officers have the maximum discretion that is where you have the greatest racial discrimination in the way the police have used their powers. We would want to be absolutely certain that police are not targeting ethnic minority communities for unfair stops and searches," said Ben Bowling, a professor of criminology at King's College of London and founding member of Stopwatch, which campaigns against alleged police abuses of stop and search powers.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the civil liberties pressure group, said, "It must target specific places, not classes of people, on the basis of intelligence and risk for narrow windows of time, with adequate authorisation and transparency. Then it will satisfy proportionality and equal treatment whilst providing a rational, flexible aid to anti-terror policing."

But senior police officers have said that they are hopeful to win UK ministers' support on the issue.