{"id":17538,"date":"2012-11-16T20:11:19","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T19:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=17538"},"modified":"2012-11-16T20:11:19","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T19:11:19","slug":"protester-fined-for-heckling-war-criminal-blair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/protester-fined-for-heckling-war-criminal-blair\/","title":{"rendered":"Protester fined for heckling war criminal Blair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Peck, The Independent<\/a> |<\/p>\n

A protestor who interrupted Tony Blair\u2019s evidence at the Leveson Inquiry in May has been fined \u00a3100.<\/p>\n

\n

David Lawley-Wakelin, who made a documentary called\u00a0Alternative Iraq<\/em>, said \u201cexcuse me\u201d before heckling Mr Blair, but was nonetheless found guilty of causing alarm or distress to Lord Leveson and the former Prime Minister. The case was moved to a larger courtroom at Haringey Magistrates\u2019 Court in north London, to accommodate Mr Lawley-Wakelin\u2019s 20 supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said excuse me when I entered because I was interrupting someone who was speaking,\u201d Mr Lawley-Wakelin, 49, told the court. \u201cThere is evidence that shows Blair lied and deceived the country into a war, so the suggestion he might be a war criminal when over 100,000 people have died is perfectly reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

A news report of the incident was played several times, showing Mr Lawley-Wakelin bursting into the room near to Lord Leveson\u2019s seat. The court heard specialist officers were drafted in that day specifically to make the courtroom secure for Mr Blair\u2019s testimony. The court heard Mr Lawley-Wakelin had an expired press pass on him when arrested, and co-operated fully with officers once he had been bundled out of the room.<\/p>\n

At one point, when the footage was paused on Mr Blair, one of his supporters in the gallery asked another: “Do we have to keep seeing his face?”<\/p>\n

Defence barrister James Mason described Mr Lawley-Wakelin as \u201ccharming\u201d, adding: \u201cThere doesn’t seem to be anyone who looks particularly concerned at all.<\/p>\n

There was no use of bad language or adjectives of swearing. There was no actual threat made to Mr Blair on anyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was irritation, and professional annoyance, and it is perfectly understandable why his Lordship [Leveson] felt the way he did,\u201d he said. It was Lord Leveson who had pushed for prosecution. \u201cBut what has followed is sledge hammer to crack a very polite and modest nut.\u201d<\/p>\n

District Judge Robin McPhee did not agree, finding Mr Lawley-Wakelin in breach of Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. \u201cI have come to the certain conclusion that in a democratic society which establishes a system of public inquiry, that it is a legitimate aim to ensure that such inquiries run properly,\u201d he said. \u201cThat witnesses can attend without fear of being caused alarm at the hand of a third party unconnected with the inquiry and give their evidence freely and without fear of interruption by disorderly behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Lawley-Wakelin was fined \u00a3100, are ordered to pay \u00a3250 court costs, and a \u00a315 victim surcharge. Speaking on the steps outside the court afterwards, Mr Lawley-Wakelin revealed he had received messages of support from the Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world needs more people like you,\u201d he said the archbishop had written to him. \u201cPeople should not abuse their freedom nor their authority. We have agitated for this and similar causes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Lawley-Wakelin said: \u201cFor me to now be found guilty of causing Tony Blair harassment, alarm and distress for calling him a war criminal while he is giving evidence to an inquiry about the lies and deceit of others is the greatest hypocrisy I have heard for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Peck, The Independent | A protestor who interrupted Tony Blair\u2019s evidence at the Leveson Inquiry in May has been fined \u00a3100. David Lawley-Wakelin, who made a documentary called\u00a0Alternative Iraq, said \u201cexcuse me\u201d before heckling Mr Blair, but was nonetheless found guilty of causing alarm or distress to Lord Leveson and the former Prime Minister. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1615,16],"tags":[55],"class_list":{"0":"post-17538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-latest-news","7":"category-uk-news","8":"category-war-terrorism","9":"tag-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}