Two days into their four-day trial, the Sizewell five have been found not guilty of aggravated trespass after a blockade in 2008 of the Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk.
News just through from Lowestoft Magistrates' Court in Suffolk, eastern England that the Sizewell Five have been acquitted after the prosecution failed to provide evidence that the defendants were on private land, meaning that they were all acquitted on this legal technicality.
The trial related to a physical blockade of the sole access road to the Sizewell nuclear power plant last year. The defendants had held up a banner reading "Nuclear Power is Not a Solution to Climate Chaos" as they physically blocked the road with their bodies and arm tubes.
The defendants had planned to use the defence that they were acting to prevent breaches of health and safety legislation resulting from the continued operation of the nuclear power plant in Suffolk. They had planned to call at least one expert witness, Dr Ian Fairlie, an independent nuclear consultant, but the judge had refused to allow this on the first day of trial, despite earlier pre-trial reviews.
More details will no doubt follow from the blockaders themselves (once they have sobered up).
Nuclear People Power network
e-mail: vd2012-npp [at] yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://stopnuclearpower.blogspot.com
Additional information from the blockaders:
It was good to get off but it would have been better if we had won the case on the issues about increased cancer deaths, breaches of health and safety... and all the other issues we brought up.
There had been two previous blockades, which surprisingly did not result in arrests:
August 2007: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/379149.html
December 2007: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/386851.html
We have had several other protests at the site including (video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti73TfSFSJU
I will not put up our legal defence here but if anyone is on charges and wants to find out more please do not hesitate to contact us.
The judge did not get round to considering the evidence provided by the defendants. This included the KiKK which is a German study that showed that there are large increases of leukaemia and other cancers in the vicinity of nuclear power plants similar to the one at Sizewell B. They also claimed that several breaches of nuclear regulations leading up to and after the leak at Sizewell A in 2007 meant that the plant was not operating legally.
KiKK report
Background to report (in English) and links to report: http://www.bfs.de/en/kerntechnik/kinderkrebs/kikk.html
Ian Fairlie comments on the KiKK report in the New Scientist: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826535.300-comment-lets-take-cancer-clusters-seriously-this-time.html
Sizewell Leak
Sizewell A – Cooling Pond Recirculation Pipe Failure Incident Of 7 January 2007. Assessment Of The Nii Decision Making Process, John Large Associates
http://www.largeassociates.com/cz3179/R3179-A3.pdf
Sizewell nuclear disaster averted by dirty laundry, says official report, Guardian June 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/11/nuclear-waste-nuclearpower
Alarm did not sound for Sizewell leak, Evening Star January 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/yendamt
plunk
e-mail: theatreofwar [at] hushmail.com
