Revealed: Police using pre-charge bail to muzzle protesters
Exclusive: Data obtained by the Guardian substantiates claims that hundreds of innocent people banned from attending lawful demonstrationsAn anti-fracking campaigner, dressed as a riot policeman, takes part in a protest march near to the Barton Moss fracking exploration rig in January 2014. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Police are being accused of trying to muzzle protest movements as figures obtained by the Guardian reveal the widespread use of bail to ban hundreds of innocent people from attending lawful demonstrations.
The data shows that around 85% of those barred from protesting when bailed have not been subsequently charged with any crime. Civil liberties and protest groups accused police of dealing out their own justice and called for a change in the law.
The figures show that a least 732 people have been banned by police forces in England and Wales since 2008 but then never charged. They come as the government confirms it is considering overhauling the police bail rules.
“Bail is becoming an instrument that is being used by people without recourse to the judicial process. It is to essentially punish protesters and curb their right to demonstrate,” said Rachel Harger of leading human rights law firm Bindmans.
“It is effectively the police conducting their own extra-judicial justice without going to court.”
Rachel Robinson, Liberty’s policy officer, said: “The lack of limits on police bail make it liable to abuse and misuse, and can act to frustrate, rather than further, prosecutions.
“Its use against protesters raises particular concerns, potentially chilling peaceful dissent for protracted periods without any prospect of criminal conviction.”
The Network for Police Monitoring, a group of activists and lawyers who are compiling evidence of police strategies, said: “Police bail is used a means of disrupting protest activity without the inconvenience of dealing with a formal legal process.
“As a result of the police’s long track record of misusing pre-charge conditions against protesters in an irresponsible way, we believe the only solution is the complete withdrawal of this power for all protest-related offences.”
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/25/revlealed-police-using-pre-charge-bail-muzzle-protesters
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