Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has voiced its support for activist Sylvia Boyes, 70, who was fined £100, plus £340 in costs, by Stratford Magistrates Court. Sylvia was convicted for obstructing the highway as part of the mass demonstrations against the DSEI arms fair in 2014.
Sylvia is the only one of 12 defendants to have been found guilty of any crime. Five Christian activists were found not guilty of a public order offence on 4th February 2014 for protesting at DSEI and six other activists had their charges dropped.
Sylvia was met outside of the court by a group of supporters and was applauded by those in the public gallery as she left the court.
Sylvia Boyes commented:
William Gladstone said that which is morally wrong can never be politically right. The UK has apologised for a number of historical crimes, like the slave trade, and I honestly and sincerely believe that what I was protesting against was in the same moral vein. The slave trade was held in place by the law of the land and the political establishment, just as the arms trade is today.
As Sylvia refused to pay the fine the court has ordered for it to be removed from her pension at a rate that is still to be determined.
Andrew Smith, a spokesperson from Campaign Against Arms Trade, said
What Sylvia was protesting against was the military and political support that the UK gives to dictatorships and the weapons that are sold at events like DSEI. Sylvia should have been congratulated on her stance. The people who should be charged are those who were selling the weapons.
The DSEI arms fair was the target of daily direct action when it took place in September 2013. Buyers included some of the world’s most repressive regimes. Two arms companies were expelled from the fair after campaigners proved that they were promoting illegal torture equipment. Syrian President Assad’s main arms suppliers were among the 1489 exhibitors. The next DSEI arms fair is scheduled to take place in September 2015
ENDS
For further information contact CAAT at media(at)caat·org·uk or call 020 7281 0297.
About Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT)
Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) in the UK works to end the international arms trade. The arms business has a devastating impact on human rights and society and damages economic development. Large-scale military procurement and arms exports only reinforce a militaristic approach to international problems. CAAT was awarded a Right Livelihood Award – the Alternative Nobel Prize
– for its innovative and effective campaigning against the arms trade
.
