The way police handle protests will have to be changed radically after peace campaigners won a ruling in the House of Lords yesterday that police violated their human rights by stopping them attending an anti-Iraq demonstration.

Five law lords ruled that police violated the protesters’ rights to “freedom of expression and lawful assembly”.

The law lords said that police from seven forces under the direction of the Gloucestershire force acted unlawfully when they stopped and detained coaches carrying the 120 protesters in March 2003.

Gloucestershire Constabulary said later that the ruling was “problematic” for the policing of a wide range of events, including football matches and large-scale protests. But it would nonetheless be reviewing its policies, a move likely to be followed by other forces.

The protesters said that among cases that could be affected by the ruling was that against the Metropolitan Police, to be heard early next year, arising from May Day 2001, when police detained thousands of people in Oxford Circus, Central London, for seven hours to “prevent a breach of peace”.

In the protest at the centre of the case, coaches were stopped outside Lechlade, near to the Fairford airbase, from where the Iraq invasion had been launched by coalition forces two days earlier. Ninety of those detained formed Fairford Coach Action to seek judicial condemnation of the police.

The High Court and Court of Appeal had already ruled that the police acted unlawfully in detaining the protesters on their coaches. But it was also held that police did not violate the protesters’ rights to freedom of expression and lawful assembly.

The second ruling was overturned unanimously yesterday by the law lords, who also dismissed a cross appeal by the police against the ruling that the protesters had been unlawfully detained.

Jane Laporte, in whose name the case was brought, said after the decision: “I am absolutely overjoyed. The Lords have confirmed that freedom to protest is something that should be treasured in this country and police don’t have the right to take it away.”

Alex Gask, legal officer for the human rights group Liberty, which intervened as an interested party in the appeal, said: “Nothing less than our freedom of speech was at stake in this case.

“Unmerited concerns (on the part of the police) about some future ‘breach of the peace’ cannot justify the denial of this fundamental right.”

Gloucestershire police said that they were “disappointed” at the judgment and defended their decision to stop the coaches. “Policing in scenarios such as those faced at Fairford is difficult and complex, with competing rights and responsibilities having to be assessed and acted upon in real time by operational commanders,” a statement said.

The force claimed that intelligence suggested a potential for disorder during the proposed rally after B52 bombers at the base were targeted by antiwar campaigners during earlier demonstrations.

It added that although the judgment was “problematic” for the policing of a wide range of events, “Gloucestershire Constabulary accepts the judgment and we will be reviewing our policies accordingly”.

Power abused?

Source: Liberty

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