Stop the War Coalition MEDIA RELEASE *** MEDIA RELEASE
January 30, 2004 Anti-war activists' prison sentence hypocritical Dr Will Saunders and Mr David Burgess, the two anti-war protesters who painted "No War" on a sail of the Sydney Opera House last year were today sentenced to 9 months' imprisonment to be served in periodic detention. The two activists have also been ordered to pay the Sydney Opera House Trust's full compensation demand of $151,000. The Stop the War Coalition, a broad community-based coalition of anti-war activists and organisations, declared the sentence "outrageous" and clearly failed to take into account the social and political context in which the protesters acted. The Coalition has organised pickets of hundreds of people in support of Will and Dave at their court hearings. Anna Samson, a spokesperson for the Stop the War Coalition, pointed out the irony of the sentencing judge's position. "Judge Blackmore argued that there was no difference between the men's desire to make a political point by painting the Opera House and 'an irresponsible drunken man' graffiting private property. This was consistent with his view that the invasion of Iraq was 'irrelevant' to the question of how Will and Dave should be treated by the legal system. At the same time, the judge believed the severity of the sentence was warranted to act as a 'general deterrent' to all activists who may consider disobeying the law in such a public manner in the future. "If the Judge wanted to make an example of Will and Dave to the community then he has succeeded. He has showed us the hypocrisy of a system that jails non-violent protesters for expressing the will of millions of Australians, while our Prime Minister, John Howard, who is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqi children, is yet to be indicted for war crimes. "Australia was drawn into an illegal and immoral war that the majority of Australians opposed. The Howard government ignored the peaceful demonstrations of a million citizens through the country's streets. Will and Dave are heroes who did their utmost to try and prevent innocent people from being unnecessarily slaughtered and for this they are being sent to prison." The Stop the War Coalition has pledged to continue the campaign to have Will and Dave's sentence overturned. The campaign to end the occupation of Iraq is also far from over. "Jailing activists will not deter us in our struggle to bring justice to the Iraqi people and to hold our governments to account," Ms Samson said. For more information, contact Anna Samson (0401 900 690) or Marlene Obeid (0401 758 871). <http://www.StopWarCoalition.org/>www.StopWarCoalition.org -- Visit the proposed Leftlink web site at http://www.leftlink.net/ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
