Rocco

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[Jonathan Cook @Jonathan_K_Cook]

A popular backlash cornered the High Court into declaring the proscription of Palestine Action unlawful – a decision the government is appealing.

That has led to another unprecedented situation: police are still arresting people for holding placards in support of the group, despite the courts ruling that the basis for such arrests is unlawful.

The law has never looked more of an ass.

Which is why Starmer’s government is pinning its hopes on the judge in the so-called Filton trial riding to the rescue – making an example of four activists who targeted an Israeli factory in the UK making killer drones for use in Gaza.

This coming Friday, Judge Jeremy Johnson will pass sentence on the activists, who were convicted by a jury of the relatively minor offence of criminal damage in the second of two trials the judge so carefully rigged.

Judge Johnson has not been shy about showing where his loyalties lie. Not to the law, but to the British security state.

Which should hardly come as a surprise, given his background.

Judge Johnson made it to the bench after years serving as the most favoured barrister of the “secret state”, representing the intelligence services, the ministry of defence and the police. His working environment of choice as a lawyer was behind-closed-doors prosecutions held out of view of the public or proper legal scrutiny.

There were many extraordinary, anomalous moments in the two trials. But perhaps the most glaring was Judge Johnson’s efforts to get the main defence barrister in the first trial, Rajiv Menon KC, jailed for contempt of court simply for noting to the jury in his summing up speech that they had a hundreds-of-years-old right in law to acquit.

Judge Johnson’s behaviour was so unprecedented and certain to have a chilling effect on the ability of defence barristers to represent their clients – the Filton defendants dismissed their barristers from summing up in their second trial to avoid their lawyers facing prison for doing their job and defending them – that the Court of Appeal had no choice but to overrule Judge Johnson’s contempt proceedings against Menon.

Former British ambassador Craig Murray has rightly observed: “Many people will surely conclude, it is Judge Johnson who should be in jail."

But even with the convictions for criminal damage secured under these rigged conditions, Judge Johnson is still in a position to cause more harm to the rule of law in Friday’s sentencing hearing.

He has reserved to himself the right to sentence the four anti-genocide activists not just for the criminal damage charge they were convicted of after his rigged trial, but – once again in an unprecedented move – to treat those criminal convictions as if they were for terrorism offences.

That means he can impose a longer sentence, more draconian prison conditions and more onerous, life-long parole conditions after their release.

The jury knew none of this when they were considering whether to convict. Judge Johnson placed a gagging order on his decision during the trial which meant the information was withheld from the jury and could not be reported until after the verdict. The gag was broken only by foreign media and Zarah Sultana, who used her parliamentary privilege to reveal Judge Johnson’s government-friendly, anti-justice machinations.

In yet another unprecedented feature to the trial, this will be the first time in British history that someone accused of criminal damage is sentenced as a terrorist. Judges were only given these extraordinary powers in a highly controversial amendment in 2021 to counter-terrorism legislation.

Judge Johnson’s logic for taking advantage of his extra powers in this case is quite extraordinary too. He argues that, in destroying Elbit’s killer drones, the activists were seeking to “influence” the Israeli government to change its policy in Gaza – that is, to stop committing a genocide.

Putting pressure on governments is what terrorists try to do, he argues, so this must mean the anti-genocide activists are terrorists.

Opposition to the genocide, in Judge Johnson’s view, has to be treated as an aggravating factor, not a mitigating one.

It is all the more astounding that Judge Johnson is using this argument when he refused to allow the jury to hear any evidence of the activists’ larger political motivations: that they wanted to stop British complicity in Israel’s genocide by targeting a factory that made the drones for use in that genocide.

Remember, all this is happening as Starmer’s government makes unprecedented moves to end many jury trials in Britain, leaving us to the mercy of judges like Jeremy Johnson.

As Defend Our Juries notes, the government is looking to create “an extraordinary and deeply authoritarian precedent, allowing countless more protesters to be tried for an ordinary offence, but secretly sentenced as terrorists, without juries knowing this when they convict”.

This is an extract from my latest article Legal profession revolt against the UK judge whose job is to protect Israel's genocide. Find a link to the rest in the reply post ⬇️

[Mannie Quinn & The Dolly Liberation Army @DollidarityArmy]

The horrors that await these girls are beyond terrifying and sickening.
Their captors are the most depraved monsters ever to walk the earth.
Will the legacy media even touch this?

[Joel Jenkins @boganintel]

The exclusion of this legendary referee from the World Cup, coupled with the killing of Palestinian national players, the treatment of visiting nations, and the cowardice of @FIFAcom, will destroy the beating heart of tournament.

And eventually, the game itself.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

The claim "Iran is the world's largest state sponsor of terror" only makes sense when you remember that the western empire labels any group which opposes US/Israeli interests as a terrorist organization.

They even designated the IRGC as a terrorist group for fuck's sake. If you define a major part of a country's actual military forces as a terrorist entity, then obviously that country will per your own definition be a major "sponsor of terrorism" just by having a military.

Other Iran-backed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah are counted as "terrorist organizations" by the western empire, even as the rest of the world declines to classify them as such. For the overwhelming majority of the world's governments those organizations are not terrorist entities, they're just armed factions who oppose Israel and its western backers. They only get to define Iran as the top "sponsor of terrorism" because they say anyone who doesn't like them is a terrorist.

It's like if I said anyone who doesn't like Caitlin Johnstone is a Nazi and then went around punching them, and if anyone objected I said "But they're Nazis! Why are you defending Nazis??" Really they're just people who don't like me, but because I've changed the definition of "Nazi" to "someone who dislikes Caitlin Johnstone" I can then use that label to justify physically assaulting them.

That's all the "terrorist" label exists to accomplish these days. It's just a label they affix to any faction which poses an obstacle to the empire's goals of planetary domination.

[Sahar A @Sahar_A_Writes]

"My principled position is to always believe women when allegations of sexual assault are made."

Penny Wong on the Australians abused by IDF on Global Sumud Flotilla.

A "principled position" means nothing if Israel faces mere words from Australia, Penny. Pure posturing. #auspol

[Leyla Hamed @leylahamed]

FIFA stripped Indonesia of the U20 World Cup after it refused to guarantee Israel could be hosted and compete.

[David Milner @DaveMilbo]

I'm not sure why anyone would switch Australian commercial television on at all at this point. Just smash your temples with a hammer and save yourself some of the pain

[Frances 'Cassandra' Coppola @Frances_Coppola]

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 7-month-old baby. It is accurate to call them baby killers.

[Peter Cronau @PeterCronau]

Apparently criticising the fools who are pressured by the lobby is ‘antisemitic’ now.

“What Wilcox’s cartoon did so brilliantly was to highlight how astroturfing works.

“Hers was a classic political cartoon.

“In the wake of the Bondi massacre in December, Netanyahu had gone so far as to blame our Prime Minister for the killings.

“In the cartoon, he was beating the drum above the grass, the astro, where the Israel-supporting celebs, sportspeople, and politicians were clamouring for a Royal Commission.

“Below the turf, Murdoch, Segal, Howard, et al., holding up the charade.”

Vale the Press Council. Caves in to anonymous pressure campaign https://t.co/cQZ1mNobmY via @MichaelWestBiz

[stranger @strangerous10]

“We are here to make sure Pauline Hanson knows that there are so many people in WA who reject her hate-filled & divisive brand” - her “Trump-style politics.”

[Narinder Kaur @narindertweets]

*The richest man in the world is provoking violent riots in our country.
*White supremacists are kicking down doors looking for non-white people to pull out and make examples out of. This is a program.
When will the cobra meeting be? @Keir_Starmer

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

Gunshot wounds in Palestinian children indicate targeted fire https://t.co/jtGHKHl5sy

[Footy Somalia 🇸🇴 @SomaliaFooty]

Absolutely NO evidence of this by the way. Never been flagged up in any other country he’s attended.

They’ve seen that it was a PR disasterclass, they’re desperate to save face now. Throwing stuff at the wall and hoping it sticks.

Lowest of the low behaviour on show here.

[💧Mary Kostakidis @MaryKostakidis]

Israel cannot kill its way to security’ says Gideon Rachman in the FT and ‘the Israelis refuse to consider that many Palestinians, Lebanese and Iranians are likely to respond in the same way to being bombed and killed in the same way as Israelis to Oct 7’. This is at the root of the problem - there cannot be parity between a supremacist state and the people it subjugates. For Israel, hegemony in the Arab world is its vision and only option. To suggest somehow the Arabs might respond to being subjugated by responding in like is highly ‘offensive’. Only Zionists buy that line. Affronted because their ideology is being criticised. No, It’s not obvious to Israel that it cant kill its way to security and must be stopped.

[Bushra Shaikh @Bushra1Shaikh]

If this were Jews locked in a Synagogue, it would be EVERYWHERE in the media by now (rightfully so). Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch et al would have already issued condemnation statements. But because it's Muslims, there's radio silence.

[A Left-Wing Account ™️ @PushDemsLeft]

Zionists can no longer get away with their lies, and it terrifies them.

[حيدر | Haydar @chronicalihere]

The World Cup will kick off in the United States tomorrow afternoon at the same time that the American military will yet again be committing illegal war crimes against a sovereign foreign state thousands and thousands of miles away. Against a nation participating in the tournament no less.

[Mannie Quinn & The Dolly Liberation Army @DollidarityArmy]

Let's tell it how it is:
"AI brainwashing tool to be tested on the poor."

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Goated response.

[Clare Hinchcliffe @Subversivite]

This is the clearest explanation & analysis of what is happening in my daughter's (Filton 25) case I have ever read. Thank you @Jonathan_K_Cook

PLEASE read this to understand the tidal wave of injustice these young prisoners of conscience are facing