The
trial of the Raytheon 9 finally got underway today at
Laganside Court in Belfast. The day started well with
about 50 people congregating outside the Courthouse. 28
of them carried placards with photographs of the men,
women and children who died in the Qana massacre of 30
July 2006. A carload of Irish Anti War Movement
activists travelled from Dublin and everyone felt good
to see so many turn up to show their solidarity when the
‘official’ protest of the day before had been cancelled
at such short notice.
As
expected, the first day was taken up with legal
arguments about the nature of the defence, witnesses
etc. They don’t deny that they occupied Raytheon or that
they destroyed their computer system but say that they
had a legal, moral and political duty to do so in order
to stop or at least delay war crimes, in which Raytheon
were involved, being carried out by the Israeli army in
Lebanon.
The
judge accepted defence arguments that he should not rule
the defence out but allow it to be argued and then,
having heard the evidence, he can decide how to instruct
the jury on what they can, and cannot, take into account
in reaching their verdict.
The
judge said that he recognised the difficulties the
defendants and their supporters face in getting up and
down between Derry and Belfast and ruled that the Court
would start no earlier than 10.30am and finish no later
than 4pm every day. The trial is expected to last three
weeks.
It would
be good if everyone who can books off work the morning
of Tues 27th May, when we hope to see a big
mobilisation. There will be buses from Derry and Dublin.
For the Derry bus, contact Davey on 07521527208 or
Eileen on 07780632610. From Dublin, contact Sara on
0872886646
The
second day of the Raytheon 9 trial went reasonably well.
The evidence came from PSNI officers, who mainly gave a
fairly flat and factual account of what they’d seen on
the morning of the occupation. Importantly, none said
that he’d seen violence from any of the 9.
The
indications are that it will be Friday before Raytheon
witnesses take the stand and can be cross-examined about
the nature of the business and the links between
Raytheon and defence forces, including the Israeli
defence forces.
The
case did get some coverage in the mainstream media
today. This concentrated on a prosecution suggestion
that the 9 had indulged in “an orgy of wanton
destruction” and the defence riposte that the 9 had been
trying to stop war crimes. Just headline stuff really,
but at least the issues may be beginning to leak out
into wider society---which is what we need.
Those who are in the dock are all in good spirits, and
encouraged by messages of support coming into the DAWC
from various parts of the globe. An update on these will
be posted on this website as soon as we get a minute. We
are just back from Belfast and have the Occupation 101
film showing in Sandino’s tonight. Maybe tomorrow...or
over the weekend..
Day Three
Today saw
evidence submitted from a number of police officers and also
video evidence of the occupation and arrests. All the
defendants left the Court in a positive mood.
After the police evidence is completed we will have a number
of witnesses from Raytheon.
The defence case is expected to begin next Wednesday 28th
or Thursday. It is expected that a number of the
defendants will go into the witness box.
Trial Update Day
Four
Day Four was like Day Three: more boring evidence from a
succession of police officers about the arrests. They
all agreed that none of the defendants had resisted
arrest in any way except by passive resistance, in that
they did not cooperate with arresting officers and some
had to be carried out of the building.
One of the interesting facts to emerge from details of
the damage done to Raytheon's offices was the extent to
which the offices were refurbished following the
occupation. So, a bill for over £3,000 for venetian
blinds was included as part of the damage caused by the
9. Under cross-examination, it became clear that as
little as 10 -15% of the blinds had been damaged, but
they had taken the opportunity to replace the lot!
Week 2
Trial Update Day
Five
Since one of the jurors was sick, Day Five was taken up
mainly by legal arguments. However, there was a lively
protest outside the court of supporters from across Ireland.
Passing cars beeped their horns and there were a couple of
rounds of singing “war stoppers are the real crime
stoppers”.
The jury could not
sit on Tuesday, due to one of the jurors being ill. Instead
there were legal arguments which centred on the legitimacy
of the defence – in short, that the action at Raytheon in
August 2006 was not criminal because it was taken in order
to prevent the commission of war crimes.
In the end, the
judge ruled that the defence could be put and that it was
for the jury, not the judge, to decide if the Raytheon 9
were acting on the basis of an 'honestly held belief'. This
was a very significant turning point in the trial. It puts
the burden of proof on the prosecution.
Wednesday, Thursday
and part of Friday were mainly taken up with witnesses from
Raytheon. A number of these witnesses were people who
happened to be in the office when the action happened.
Two were more
noteworthy. ******* Mc***** who had claimed that his car
had been damaged by paper thrown from the office window, was
asked by defence barristers about the work he performed at
Raytheon (he was working on JETTS, a military contract for
the British MoD), which he eventually admitted was a
computer programme to enable the targeting of weapons. Asked
how he felt about the use of Raytheon weapons in the killing
of innocent people in, for instance, Lebanon, he said that
he lost no sleep over it.
The last Raytheon
witness, was John Reilly, head of Legal Affairs and a member
of the Board of Raytheon Systems Ltd (the UK company). He
presented the bill of damages, which had been considerably
reduced by the Compensation Agency from over £300,000 to
£97,000, when it was discovered that the PCs that were
damaged were not being replaced.
Defence barristers
asked him about his view of Raytheon's involvement in
supplying the weapons used in war crimes, and therefore
'aiding and abetting' war crimes. He said that he believed
Raytheon was an ethical company. When presented with the
findings of a report by the Norwegian government that
Raytheon was unethical due to its production of cluster
munitions, he said that it did not trouble him. He was shown
a BBC TV report about the Qana massacre and said that it was
not an issue for him that Raytheon weapons had been used in
the killing of innocent civilians.
After a number of
questions about his role in the drawing up of letters to
Derry City Council, he admitted that he had been present at
the meeting in September 2006 with the Council at which
Raytheon had decided to 'come clean' over its military work,
after the work on JETTS was revealed by the Belfast
Telegraph. He admitted that JETTS had been worked on in
Derry since 2004.
Most of the rest of
Friday was taken up with the reading of police interviews.
Most of these were mainly 'no comment' interviews, but
Eamonn and Sean's more extended interviews came across well,
reflecting the 'honestly held beliefs' that led to the
action. That completed the prosecution case.
The trial is likely
to end sometime this week. Eamonn is due to take the witness
stand on Monday and Colm on Tuesday. There will then be
closing arguments and direction from the judge to the jury.
So there is every chance that we will have a verdict on
Wednesday or Thursday.
We would urge anyone
who has any spare time show your support by going to the
court and sitting in the public gallery. It is Laganside
Court, number 14 on the 4th floor. The court sits
from 10.30am to 1.00pm and from 2.00pm to 4.00pm each day.
Raytheon 9 Trail
Week 3
The
third week of the Raytheon trial began with Eamonn
McCann in the witness box.
Eamonn
described the run-up to the occupation of Raytheon
during the 2006 Israeli assault on Lebanon, detailing
the meetings at which the need to take action was
discussed and the reasons this particular form of action
was decided on.
A lot
of the cross-examination by the prosecution concerned
whether this was a mere protest or a serious effort to
bring Raytheon production to a standstill. Eamonn argued
at length that the purpose had been to save lives by
hampering the manufacture of bombs and therefore, at the
least, slowing their delivery to Israel. There is an
important legal point in this, which, we hope, will have
become clear by the time the trial ends.
The
public gallery was packed again, with a good contingent
from Derry and a couple of car-loads from Dublin as well
as Belfast anti-war people.
Colm
Bryce will take the stand first thing tomorrow
(Tuesday). The defendants will be very pleased to see
anti-war activists of whatever tendency or group in
court to hear his evidence. It is great for morale, and
makes the intervals that bit more enjoyable (if that’s
the word.)
Depending on how things go, there may be no other
defence witnesses after Colm. So we might have the
summings-up on Wednesday, possibly running into
Thursday, and a verdict on Friday. Of course, this is
entirely tentative, but it’s as accurate a time-frame as
we can lay out at the moment.
Trial Update Tuesday 3rd June
Events in the trial moved rapidly today. Our
lawyers began by asking the judge to withdraw the case from
the jury on the ground that the prosecution had not proved
its case, even after having called all its witnesses and
that there was therefore no requirement for the defence to
offer any further evidence: the case was lost, we should go
free. After prolonged argument between the defence and the
prosecution, the judge said he’d consider the issues over
night and give a ruling tomorrow (Wednesday).
We have no idea how the judge will rule. But
it was clear from the argument, and from the judge’s
interventions, that our application was seen by all as very
strong. Even if the ruling goes against us, the concessions
made by the prosecution in the course of the exchanges gives
us more confidence that we have a good chance of acquittal
if the issue goes to the jury. Of course, you can never tell
with juries. We are not complacent or taking anything for
granted.
But everyone left the court in higher spirits
than at any time since the case began.
The public gallery was again packed with
supporters, including members of the Derry Anti War
Coalition, a SWP contingent from Dublin, representation of
the Quaker community, the Catholic Workers’ group and the
WSM and individual republicans and others. The solidarity
of all is much appreciated.
Tomorrow may be a big day. In any event,
barring unanticipated further delays, we are still on
schedule for a verdict before the week is out.
