'No war' protesters convicted

BY DALE MILLS

SYDNEY — Will Saunders and David Burgess, the protesters who painted "No war" on the Sydney Opera House on March 18, at the beginning of the Iraq War, were convicted of malicious damage on October 2. The act achieved prominent media coverage around the world.

The jury reached its verdict after Justice Martin Blackmore ruled that the protesters' defence was inadmissible and could not be presented. The protesters wanted to argue that they were acting in self-defence, by trying to stop a war in which they or others were likely to be victims.

Saunders, a British citizen working in Australia as an astronomer, was given 24 hours to surrender his passport. Both he and Burgess were given a clear indication by the court that if their appeal is not successful, they are likely to be sent to prison.

"All we have ever asked is for our defence to be heard by a jury of the people of NSW. The judge's rulings ensured that the jury would not hear our defence. We believe we have been wrongly convicted", said Saunders.

From Green Left Weekly, October 15, 2003.

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From GLW issue 557