Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 22:13:34 +0000 From: David Subject: [or-world] Mugabe Three Charged From: David > >WILLIAMS, MORRIS & TATCHELL CHARGED OVER MUGABE ARREST > >Court Hearing: 10am, Friday 19 November, Horseferry Road Magistrate's Court > > >MUGABE THREE DEFENCE FUND LAUNCHED > >OutRage! activists Chris Morris, Alistair Williams and Peter Tatchell have >been charged with public order offences following their citizen's arrest of >President Mugabe of Zimbabwe in London on 30 October. All three deny the >charges. > >Morris and Williams are charged with "disorderly conduct" likely to >cause "harassment, alarm or distress". > Tatchell is charged with using "threatening, abusive and insulting words and >behaviour" and with "assaulting a police officer". > >A fourth OutRage! protester, John Hunt, was neither arrested nor charged. > >Taking a lead from the British government's arrest of General Pinochet for >human rights abuses, the four OutRage! activists attempted to have President >Mugabe arrested on charges of torture under the 1984 UN Convention Against >Torture, which Britain has signed and pledged to enforce. > >A defence fund is being launched to cover the legal costs of the "Mugabe >Three". Cheques should be made payable to "OutRage!" and sent to OutRage!, PO Box 17816, London SW14 8WT, with a note that the donation is for the Mugabe Three Defence Fund. Thank you. > >The charges against the "Mugabe Three" were laid at Belgravia police station >in central London on 16 November 1999. > >The police had, on 30 October, indicated that they might also charge >Tatchell with assaulting President Mugabe and causing damage to his car, >following complaints by the President and his entourage. These charges >have been shelved. > >"President Mugabe told the police that I had assaulted him and damaged his >limousine. The police, however, have dropped plans to charge me with those offences because the President has refused to come to London to testify against me. >Mugabe has chickened out. I challenge him to come to London and give >evidence in court", said Mr Tatchell. > >After being photographed, finger-printed and DNA swabbed by Belgravia >police, the "Mugabe Three" were bailed to appear at Horseferry Road >Magistrate's Court at 10am this Friday, 19 November. > >"We will plead not guilty", said Tatchell. "Our actions were a lawful >attempt to apprehend President Mugabe for the crime of torture". > >"We refute all the charges. OutRage! is a human rights group modelled on the >non-violent methods of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. We would never >use violence, even if we were provoked or assaulted by others. My 30 years >of campaigning for gay human rights has involved over 1000 direct action >protests. I have never before been accused of violence". > >"It is bizarre that we have been charged for trying to bring a torturer to >trial, while the police have allowed the torturer to go Christmas >shopping at Harrods and then fly back to Zimbabwe a free man", said Tatchell. > >The four OutRage! members ambushed President Mugabe's motorcade on Saturday 30 October as it left his hotel in Buckingham Gate, central London. Running out into the road, they forced his car to stop. Tatchell opened the car door. Grabbing the President's arm, he said: "President Mugabe, you are under arrest for torture. Torture is a crime under international law". > Tatchell then turned to Mugabe's bodyguards and said: "Call the police.The President is under arrest on charges of torture". > >When Tatchell attempted to present the police with a dossier from Amnesty >International documenting the torture of two Zimbabwean journalists, Ray >Choto and Mark Chavunduka, officers knocked aside the dossier and proceeded >to arrest Tatchell and his two OutRage! colleagues, Alistair Williams, >aged 31, a carpenter, and Chris Morris, aged 20, editor of the gay magazine >Outcast. Morris was the gay man who took the British government to the >European Court of Human Rights and got the unequal age of consent for gay >people declared unlawful. > >FULL STORY: A full report on the citizen's arrest of President Mugabe is on >the OutRage! website - www.OutRage.org.uk > >PHOTOS: Still pictures and video film of the citizens's arrest of President >Mugabe are available from ISF news agency - > >Phone: 44 1628 542 554 >Fax : 44 1628 680 578 >Email : isf@abel.co.uk > >FURTHER INFORMATION: PETER TATCHELL Phone & Fax 44 171 403 1790 > >-- >Peter Tatchell >peter@tatchell.freeserve.co.uk >http://www.tatchell.freeserve.co.uk >http://www.outrage.org.uk > > > --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- GRAB THE GATOR! FREE SOFTWARE DOES ALL THE TYPING FOR YOU! Tired of filling out forms and remembering passwords? Gator fills in forms and passwords with just one click! Comes with $50 in free coupons! 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