2002-01-07
Today, Tuesday the 7th of January 2002, the court decided to keep the French protestor who has been imprisoned since the EU-summit, in custody. According to the prosecutor he is charged with repeatedly kicking a plain-clothes cop while he himself was lying on his back, getting arrested by a group of cops in full riotgear. In other words: Total bullshit charges.
That didn't have any impact on the judge though. She didn't see any problem in keeping him in custody, even though he will have been imprisoned for more than 40 days when his actual trial comes up. This means that he will most likely a sentence of at least 60 days (time served in custody usually counts more than "normal" imprisonment), because the courts are never eager to admit that people have been kept in custody when they actually shouldn't.
The English woman who has also been sitting in Vestre fængsel since the summit, had her trial today, and was found guilty of violently resisting arrest. She was sentenced to 30 days, which she has already been sitting, and is to be deported from Denmark tomorrow. She is not allowed to enter the country for the next 5 years.
One of the Swedish people, who were arrested at the demonstration against police state Europe, was also on trial today. He was found guilty of kicking a plain-cloth cop who attacked him in the middle of the demo. The Swedish protester claimed that he didn't know it was a cop and that he just got surprised and wanted to defend himself from an unprovocated attack by an unknown assailant. But the judge found that it was obvious to everyone that this was a cop, because a police-witness had stated in court that his group in loud voices had shouted: "This is the police". Another point the judge made, was that the plain-cloth cop easily could be recognized by the lead going to the headset which he was wearing under his cap.
We think the rulings today shows how far off from the real world the tight arsed bigots called judges really are, and especially how the socalled justice-system treats political prisoners.
[abc kopenhagen]