Former editor in court for wearing ‘terrorist t-shirt’

Martin Shipton

A former editor of the newspaper Wales on Sunday was among 37 people who appeared in a Scottish court charged under the Terrorism Act for wearing t-shirts with a message that reads: “Stop the genocide in Palestine. Take action now.”

Standing outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Yvonne Ridley made a video in which she said: “I was stopped from getting into court because I was wearing a Palestinian scarf. I’m telling you, ladies and gentlemen, Police Scotland have totally lost the plot.

“Then they arrested one of us after we left the court because they said he was wearing a t-shirt which broke the rules. And then the cop turned round and said: ‘Can you open your jacket so I can see what the t-shirt says?’ Even though she’d made the decision to arrest him, a member of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

“The bottom line is, the case has not moved forward any further. It’s now nearly a year. More than 40 of us have been charged under section 13 of the Terrorism Act for wearing a t-shirt that says: ‘Stop the genocide in Palestine. Take action now.’

“And by the way, UK terror police have sent an advisory to Police Scotland saying don’t arrest anyone wearing those t-shirts because it’s not a criminal offence. It’s a political statement, it’s not a crime.

“Police Scotland? I don’t know. I just hope they’re not putting up anybody for Mastermind any time soon. So the case has been adjourned. Everybody you can see behind me is absolutely frustrated. Another wasted day.”

Ridley, who has been a long-term supporter of the Palestinian cause and has a daughter with a former colonel in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, finished the video saying: “The acoustics in Edinburgh Sheriff Court – you can’t hear anything. The staff have their heads down and they just mumble. They won’t speak into the directional microphones so nobody can hear what the hell is going on. If this is justice in Scotland, it sucks and somebody ought to do something about it.”

Ridley, who is originally from the north-east of England, worked in Cardiff for several years in the 1990s before working for a number of UK national papers in London.

In 2001, in the aftermath of 9/11, she entered Afghanistan and was captured by the Taliban. After being released she converted to Islam and is now a well-known figure in the Muslim world.

Last year she participated in a flotilla of boats taking aid to Gaza that was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters. With other flotilla members Ridley was kidnapped and held in an Israeli prison. After being released she said she would rather spend two months in a Taliban jail than two days imprisoned by Israel.

All the cases were adjourned to notional trial diets on February 9 next year.

Prosecutors moved to delay any trial until after the Supreme Court rules on the legality of former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group.

Scriptwriter

Also among those charged is Paul Laverty, an award-winning scriptwriter, and a long-term collaborator of film-maker and activist Ken Loach.

Laverty has written screenplays for films including Carla’s Song, Sweet Sixteen and I, Daniel Blake. He also collaborated with Loach on The Wind That Shakes the Barley, winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or award at Cannes.

Palestine Action uses direct action to disrupt the arms industry, which it accuses of being complicit with Israel in carrying out a genocide in Gaza.

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