Court awards Fairford anti-war protestors thousands in compensation (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Court awards RAF Fairford anti-war protestors thousands in compensation

12:00pm Saturday 2nd March 2013 in News By Laura Shack

ANTI-WAR campaigners who were stopped from protesting at RAF Fairford by police have won thousands of pounds in compensation.

Gloucestershire police stopped 159 protestors who were travelling by coach to a planned mass rally at the Fairford airbase at the start of the Iraq war in 2003.

After hearing 12 test cases where protestors were stopped in Lechlade and escorted away by police, a county court judge ruled that their human rights had been breached.

Those campaigners are set to receive a payout of between £4,200 and £5,100 and many more protestors are now expected to pursue compensation claims.

At Central London County Court this month, Judge David Mitchell said the action taken by Gloucestershire police a decade ago demonstrated "an interference with the right of ordinary citizens to go about their business."

He added that the campaigners had endured "humiliating" circumstances.

Many of the men and women had been forced to use plastic containers to relieve themselves on the coaches because they were not allowed to stop at service stations on their journey back to London.

Gloucestershire police apologised, saying policing of protests had moved on since 2003 and lessons had been learned.