This is IMPORTANT information for G8 defendants with trial dates due soon to make sure that they check their dates have not been changed or cancelled!

The legal support group has been contacted by some defendants whose trials were due to begin to say that they were not informed of the change and had already paid in advance for transport. This will obviously be particularly important if you were planning to attend a trial and are coming from outside the UK.

The daily court rolls can be checked online at: http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/locations/index.asp?crt=per&val=rolls though defendants should also check with their solicitor or the court to be sure.

An article of interest also appeared in yesterday’s Sunday Post (18.09.05 – see below). It might be an idea for defendants to contact their solicitor to check if there has been any news on that front as well.

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Court farce as G8 cases dropped

CRIMINAL cases against G8 protestors have been dropped after costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds in fees and court time.

Trials involving activists who tried to disrupt this summer’s summit at Gleneagles Hotel were due to get under way tomorrow.

Wasted

However it has emerged that after racking up huge costs in court time, legal aid and translator fees, the Crown Office has decided to quietly abandon prosecutions.

G8 Alternatives spokesman Aamer Anwar said, “This comes after many millions of pounds were wasted on protecting George Bush.

“We still believe these people were arrested illegally by English officers and now the police involved will not be produced to give evidence.

“People were warned that they would face the full might of the justice system, but now a few months later their cases are being quietly dropped.”

SNP Justice spokesman Kenny MacAskill said, “I think questions need to be asked about why these people were not simply booted out after a night in the cells and told to stay away.”

Cases could have been dismissed earlier. The Procurator Fiscal has to weigh the risk to the public against the cost to the public purse.”

Four men and a woman were due to stand trial at Perth Sheriff Court tomorrow on a charge of conspiring to commit a breach of the peace with a view to disrupting the G8 summit.

Perth trio John Boatman (33), Arnold Crone (44) and Joseph McLoughlin (35), along with Ludwig Appeltans (34), from Glasgow, and Kate Holcombe (45), from Evesham, were accused of plotting to chain themselves to the hotel.

But Perth fiscal Dr David Griffiths said, “I am taking no further proceedings in this case. I do not intend to call in the complaint on any future date.”

Belgians

In a second case four Belgians had the charge against them dropped ahead of a scheduled trial the following week.

Around a dozen different solicitors have been involved in representing the accused, with all claiming legal aid payments.

Translators who can claim over £400 per day in fees have also been present in court, while each accused left court with a standard `prisoner’s goody bag’ of food and travel cash. It is believed around half of the original cases have now been dropped across the country.

A Crown source said, “There was no way these cases were going to trial and I would be amazed if many others do either. Most of the arresting officers were from places like Cambridgeshire and Teesside. It was a nightmare to organise bringing them north again to give evidence.”