Catholic Workers Head to British GCHQ at Cheltenham on eve of 10th Anniversary of the Wars

by Peace Movement Aotearoa Fri Sep 02, 2011 13:51

For those of you following the Waihopai Ploughshares situation here in Aotearoa New Zealand, the High Court released a decision on Wednesday, 31 August 2011, awarding $ (NZ)1.2 million damages and court costs in favour of the government.

Below is a brief chronology of the events leading to this decision.

On 30 April 2008, the Waihopai Ploughshares - Adrian Leason, Fr Peter Murnane and Sam Land - entered the grounds of the NZ Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) / US National Security Agency spy base at Waihopai and punctured the dome covering one of the two antenna in protest of the role of the base - part of the US government's global spy network - in the 'war on terror'. Their statement is available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/plshares.htm

The Waihopai Ploughshares were charged with burglary and intentional damage, and their trial started on 8 March 2010. Their defence was based on 'claim of right' (widely misreported by the media here as a necessity defence) and on 17 March 2010, the trial jury acquitted the three defendants. An overview of the trial with links to more information is available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/plupdate.htm

On 7 April 2010, the Attorney-General announced that the government would not appeal the verdict, but was considering suing Waihopai Ploughshares for (at that time) $1.1 million.

In October 2010, the Attorney-General lodged a civil claim, on behalf of the GSCB, for $1.2 million - see for example, '$1.2m Crown seeking includes beer, pies' at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&ob...79078

On 3 November 2010, the government announced that it would be limiting the 'claim of right' defence so that it could not be used in similar circumstances in future.

On 8 August 2011, there was an all-day hearing in the High Court as to whether the government would be awarded summary judgement of $1.2 million damages for the costs of repair of the spy base dome (and food and drink for the workers who repaired it) or whether the matter would proceed to trial - the decision hinged around whether or not the judge considered the three defendants had a chance of successfully arguing a case against the awarding of damages to the government. A brief overview of the defence case, which was based in part on the defences of necessity and self-defence / defence of another and in part on ex turpi causa, is available at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=217666044947439

Associate Judge David Gendall reserved his decision at the time, and it was released last Wednesday, 31 August 2011. His judgement was that the defence did not have a case, and that summary judgement of $1.2 million damages was therefore awarded in the government's favour, as well as court costs. The media release from Adrian Leason in response is available at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=228892570491453

While Waihopai Ploughshares will be appealing the decision, if it stands (which it might) it will be a major setback in terms of defences available for future non-violent direct action against military or signals intelligence establishments. Which of course was a point the Crown lawyer made repeatedly during the hearing on 8 August, ie, if summary judgement wasn't immediately awarded in favour of the government, then who knows what anarchy would ensue ...

If you are interested in reading the High Court decision, please email Peace Movement Aotearoa [email protected] and we'll send it to you.

This chronology is available at http://www.facebook.com/notes/peace-movement-aotearoa/w...49074