Anti-war activist to ask for prison time if convicted.

Anti-war activist Daniel Rae is due to appear in the district court on Friday the 17th October at 10.00am in relation to a trespass charge for entering and pouring red paint on the runway of the US Air Force base at Harewood shortly after the invasion of Iraq.

“If convicted I will refuse to pay any court fines or do community service. I will be asking for a prison sentence which is to be construed as an act of solidarity with other war resistors around the globe. Resisters such as the Irish Ploughshares four who are awaiting trial for disabling a USAF plane and the Catholic nuns in America who are serving years in prison for opposing this war” said Daniel Rae.

Mr. Rae will present legal briefs and give oral arguments that he was fully justified in taking the action to oppose the invasion of Iraq. He will argue that the war against Iraq was illegal under international law and that the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 outlaws any act of terrori “It is my intention to put the war on trial and to expose it as an act of illegal state terrorism”.

“The opposition of anti-war and peace protestors to the invasion is justified in light of the events since the war. No weapons of mass destruction have been found and tens of thousands of Iraqi people have been killed or maimed by a war to ensure the ‘right’ of US corporations to plunder the resources of the Middle-East,” said Mr. Rae.

There will be a vigil outside the court room from 9.30 am on the day of the trial and Mr. Rae is available for interviews in the days leading up to the trial.

Programme: 9:30-10:00am Vigil outside the court, Dan available for interviews

10:00am Dan in court

4:30-5:30pm Vigil at the scene of the crime, Harewood

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