Prestwick Airport protester jailed for 28 days after refusing
14.08.07
After seven of the eight protesters from the anti-war group Trident Ploughshares charged over an incident at Prestwick Airport last year were acquitted of at Ayr Sheriff Court on Friday, the remaining accused, Marcus Armstrong, 46, from Milton Keynes, was found guilty of boarding a military aircraft and sent to prison for 28 days, after refusing to pay a£750 fine imposed by Sheriff John Montgomery.
The protesters were charged with breaking into the airport and boarding a US Air Force plane. Mr. Armstrong had argued that although he had been on a US military aircraft without permission, he did have a reasonable excuse for doing so - the suspicion that the airport authorities and the British government were colluding in a war crime by providing Israel with weapons. US planes delivering armaments to Israel need a fuel stopover in the UK and Prestwick was one of the options, he said.
Sheriff Montgomery said that Mr. Armstrong had had no firm evidence to show that the UK government was aware that a war crime was being committed and so did not have a reasonable excuse for his actions.
Mr. Armstrong told the Sheriff he would not pay the fine and asked that any substitute sanction be imposed immediately. He was sentenced to 28 days in jail, which he is likely to serve at HMP Kilmarnock.
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