Cork no events posted in last week
The Wholesome Photo of the Month Thu May 09, 2024 11:01 | Anti-Empire
In 3 War Years Russia Will Have Spent $3... Thu May 09, 2024 02:17 | Anti-Empire
UK Sending Missiles to Be Fired Into Rus... Tue May 07, 2024 14:17 | Marko Marjanović
US Gives Weapons to Taiwan for Free, The... Fri May 03, 2024 03:55 | Anti-Empire
Russia Has 17 Percent More Defense Jobs ... Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:56 | Marko Marjanović Anti-Empire >>
A bird's eye view of the vineyard
Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb
The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog. We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).
What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are
Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader 2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of
The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by The Saker >>
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail supporter? Anthony
Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
Waiting for SIPO Anthony Public Inquiry >>
Voltaire, international edition
Netanyahu soon to appear before the US Congress? It will be decisive for the suc... Thu Jul 04, 2024 04:44 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N°93 Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:49 | en
Will Israel succeed in attacking Lebanon and pushing the United States to nuke I... Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:40 | en
Will Netanyahu launch tactical nuclear bombs (sic) against Hezbollah, with US su... Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:09 | en
Will Israel provoke a cataclysm?, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jun 25, 2024 06:59 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Cork Circuit Court overturns convictions against Fintan Lane for anti-war postering
cork |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report
Thursday June 23, 2005 16:54 by Cork Anti-War Campaign
![Report this post to the editors Report this post to the editors](../graphics/report.gif)
Attempt to undermine CAWC defeated
At Cork Circuit Court this morning, two District Court convictions against Fintan Lane for allegedly ‘directing’ the erection of anti-war posters near Glanmire in County Cork were quashed by the judge. The case relates to the putting up on ESB poles of cardboard A2 posters by members of the Cork Anti-War Campaign (CAWC) advertising the first of two 4,000-strong marches that occurred in Cork city in March 2003. Nobody was seen erecting the posters in question at Glanmire, but as Fintan Lane was the publicly identified chairperson and spokesperson for the campaign, Cork County Council moved to bring charges against him. However, they were unable to successfully serve summonses on him and waited until he was serving a two-month sentence in Limerick Prison for his part in a mass trespass at Shannon airport. In December 2003, two summonses were served on him while he was in prison.
Subsequently, he was convicted on both counts in the District Court in his absence and fined e125 for each. An appeal was immediately lodged, coming before the Circuit Court today. The essence of the Cork County Council case was that as chairperson at the time of CAWC, he was legally responsible for any breaches of the law with regard to postering. The posters at Glanmire were allegedly up for three days beyond the seven days allowed to remove them. Furthermore, a Mr Dooley of the county council gave evidence that he had phoned Fintan Lane about posters in another part of the county some time previously and that he had taken responsibility for these.
Under cross examination from Donal Daly, solicitor for CAWC, who did a superb job, Dooley admitted that Lane had not taken responsibility but had merely tried to be helpful and had offered to bring the matter up at a meeting of CAWC. Dooley also admitted that Lane and he had discussed the legal context and Lane was fully aware of the legal situation, and so on, with regard to postering and Dooley at the time did not believe CAWC to be in breach of the law.
Ultimately, the judge accepted the appeal and quashed both District Court convictions because he was not satisfied that Lane could be linked to the ‘offences’. In other words, the chairperson of a broad-based campaign cannot be held responsible for the activities of every single member.
This was an important victory because if the council had succeeded in upholding the convictions, then any publicly identified spokesperson or official of any campaign could be convicted for any postering done by members of the campaign, regardless of whether people had been stopped on the night or not. Moreover, if a pro-war individual decided to ‘set up’ a group for a conviction, it could easily be done by simply plastering the city with posters with the group’s name appended.
A small but important victory in the resistance to the ongoing crackdown on oppositional postering.
|
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2This is an important victory. Is there any chance though that a case can be taken against the DPP for malicious prosecution? This is part of how activists can be diverted and neutralized by the state: tie them up in legal business. There should be some way of making it hard for a government to pursue such a strategy.
The County Council took the case not the gardai or government as such. That said, it's obviously part of a strategy to tie people up with legal cases and convictions in the hope that they'll go away and give up postering. In this case it clearly didn't work and the Council have ended up wasting taxpayers money on a vindictive prosecution. Bet you, though, they'll be slower to do it again!
Well done to all concerned! The attempt to stop the Left and others from postering needs to be stood up to like this.