Shame on English Police !!

CPS reviews environmental activists' convictions

Group that planned to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station was infiltrated by undercover police officer Mark Kennedy

• Owen Bowcott
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 January 2011 12.10 GMT
• Article history

The convictions of 20 environmental campaigners involved in a protest at Britain's second largest coal-fired power station are to be reviewed less than two weeks after they were sentenced.

The urgent investigation by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) into the safety of the convictions was welcomed by one of the activists, Ben Stewart, a Greenpeace employee who branded the trial a miscarriage of justice.

The CPS decision follows revelations in the Guardian about the role of PC Mark Kennedy, allegedly at the centre of a £250,000-a-year undercover operationwithin the climate change movement. Under the name Mark Stone the former Metropolitan police officer infiltrated environmental groups across Europe.

The demonstrators were convicted of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass at the coal-fired Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire.

The CPS said: "We will appoint a QC to consider the safety of the convictions arising from the trial ... This will be a thorough review but conducted as quickly as possible."

The convicted protesters were given a mixture of community orders and conditional discharges this month at Nottingham crown court. Stewart, 36, and Sarah Shoraka, 33, another Greenpeace worker, were among the last to be sentenced for their part in the 2009 climate change action.

The cases against six of their fellow demonstrators collapsed because Kennedy was expected to give evidence on their behalf. The trial led to claims that police withheld significant secretly recorded tapes from the defence and the court.

"This is now the fifth supposedly independent inquiry sparked by the Guardian's revelations about Mark Kennedy," Stewart said. "Crucial evidence was suppressed. There's a recording that Kennedy made of a briefing before the proposed action.

"It would go right to the heart of the case because the jury would have known what was motivating us. The key issue was whether this was an attempt to stop CO2 emissions or whether it was a publicity stunt.

"It was an attempt to stop emissions. It was an attempt to stop 150,000 tonnes of CO2 going into the atmosphere.

"The tape would have been absolutely crucial ... but the police decided not to let the jury have it. They didn't let the judge in the trial have it either.

"We are in an extraordinary position where the DPP is investigating a possible miscarriage of justice only one and a half weeks after our sentences were imposed. The Kennedy affair gets darker and darker.

"There's an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into the suppression of the tape. God knows what we will end up with. It could end up with charges for perverting the course of justice and the only people going to jail could be police officers."

The convicted activists are due to start their community service orders in the next few weeks. There has been no announcement on whether they will be suspended pending the CPS review.

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Here is an article from an English newspaper: The Guardian.
It's about the story of some environmental campaigners who wanted to stop the exploitation of a coal-fired  power plant.They couldn't shut down the power station because their group was infiltrated by Mark Kennedy, a police officer.So they were convicted of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass.
In the court, several procedural irregularities were noticed : the police secretly recorded the defence and the court, and a recording that Kennedy made of a briefing before the proposed action, disappeared.This tape would have proved that environmental campaigners wanted to explain that this kind of energy production was a danger for the planet because it produces a lot of CO2 gas wich increases the global warming.
So justice was clement : the convicted activists have just to do community service orders.However, an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigates for the suppression of the tape.


I agree with the court decision.But whenever ecologists want to defend the environment, they are treated as terrorists. Because of lobbying by major energy, mining and food companies.
It's a shame !!!