Latest news with #JanePlastow
Arab News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Outrage as pro-Palestine protester to spend 21 months in prison before trial
LONDON: The mother of a British man charged over a protest against an Israeli weapons firm has voiced outrage over the expected 21-month imprisonment of her son before his trial, The Guardian reported. William Plastow, a 34-year-old resident of Manchester, is accused of taking part in a Palestine Action demonstration against a factory in Bristol owned by Elbit Systems. The protest, which took place in August last year, involved 17 others. The group has been dubbed the 'Filton 18.' Plastow, a script editor, has denied charges of criminal damage, violent disorder and aggravated burglary relating to the demonstration. Six of the 18, including Plastow, who are all being held in prison, have been given a trial date of April next year. Defendants should not spend more than six months in jail while awaiting trial, according to custody time limit guidelines. By the time of Plastow's expected trial, he will have served the equivalent of a sentence of more than five years, based on new sentencing rules that allow the release of convicted criminals who have served one-third of their sentences. Jane Plastow, his mother, said the case might set a record for the longest time anyone has been held in prison awaiting trial on protest charges in Britain. The 66-year-old, an academic, said: 'It's outrageous, it's terrible. Will is a kind of glass-half-empty guy, so he tends toward (believing in) the worst possible outcome. 'Every day, which has become a kind of ritual, I have to say: 'Yes, you are going to get out of there, this is not the end of your life. They are not going to be able to keep you in for years and years and years.' Because you just obviously feel so helpless and hopeless locked up in that place.' In a prison diary published in Inside Time, Plastow revealed he had suffered suicidal thoughts. He was denied bail despite agreeing to a slew of measures designed to limit his behavior, including wearing an electronic tag, having his phone and passport confiscated, and submitting regular police reports on his activity. The judge responsible for the decision said Plastow posed a risk of breaking the law again, his mother said. 'What you're being required to prove is a negative — well, you can never prove the negative, can you?' she said. 'You can't prove that you're not going to do anything.' Plastow's artner of a decade, Valentina Tschismarov, said: 'I think the worst that I have personally seen him was when his bail application was denied, which obviously was really disheartening for all of us. Shortly afterward myself and his mum went to visit him together and I was very worried at that point because he was really shaken, just out of it. 'Even on the phone in the weeks after that, he just sounded very distant and kind of broken down. It seems incredibly disproportionate. I always imagined that there were these protections in place and you couldn't just have somebody jailed without a conviction for these amounts of time. 'I think people are not really aware.' The 18 protesters arrested at the Elbit facility last year were initially arrested under the Terrorism Act, meaning they could be held for 14 days without charge. However, despite the Crown Prosecution Service saying the protest held a 'terrorism connection,' none of the 18 have been charged with terror offenses.
The Guardian
15 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘It's outrageous,' says mother of UK Israel protest accused as he faces 21 months in jail before trial
The mother of a man charged in relation to a protest at a site belonging to an Israeli arms manufacturer has said it is outrageous that he faces 21 months in jail before his case goes to trial. William Plastow, 34, who lives in Manchester, is one of the 'Filton 18', accused of taking part in a Palestine Action protest against an Elbit Systems factory near Bristol in August last year. He denies charges of criminal damage, violent disorder and aggravated burglary. Plastow, a script editor, and five more of the 18, who are all being held in prison, have been given a trial date of April next year. Custody time limits stipulate that defendants should not spend more than six months in jail awaiting trial. Under new sentencing rules for England and Wales, which allow the release of convicted criminals after serving a third of their sentences, Plastow will have served the equivalent of a sentence of more than five years before going to trial. His mother, Jane Plastow, 66, an academic at the University of Leeds, believes it is the longest anyone will have been held in jail awaiting trial on protest-related charges and fears for his mental health. In a prison diary published in Inside Time, her son wrote about having suicidal thoughts. His mother said: 'It's outrageous, it's terrible. Will is a kind of glass-half-empty guy, so he tends towards [believing in] the worst possible outcome. Every day, which has become a kind of ritual, I have to say: 'Yes, you are going to get out of there, this is not the end of your life. They are not going to be able to keep you in for years and years and years.' Because you just obviously feel so helpless and hopeless locked up in that place.' She said she had offered a surety of £50,000, using money from an inheritance, for his bail application, said he could live with her and that all internet access would be removed from the house. He also would have been tagged, had his passport and smartphone removed and had to report regularly to the police, but he was still denied bail. Jane said the judge indicated her son posed a risk of breaking the law again. 'What you're being required to prove is a negative – well, you can never prove the negative, can you?' she said. 'You can't prove that you're not going to do anything.' Another of the Filton 18, Kamran Ahmed, was granted bail but the decision was overturned on appeal. Will Plastow's partner of 10 years, Valentina Tschismarov, a script editor, said: 'I think the worst that I have personally seen him was when his bail application was denied, which obviously was really disheartening for all of us. Shortly afterwards myself and his mum went to visit him together and I was very worried at that point because he was really shaken, just out of it. 'Even on the phone in the weeks after that, he just sounded very distant and kind of broken down. It seems incredibly disproportionate. I always imagined that there were these protections in place and you couldn't just have somebody jailed without a conviction for these amounts of time. I think people are not really aware.' The longest that any Just Stop Oil activists have spent in jail awaiting trial was the nearly 10 months – still over the custody time limit – spent on remand by two of the Heathrow 10, who had planned a peaceful demonstration at the airport last July. The Filton 18 were initially arrested under the Terrorism Act, which meant they could be held for 14 days without charge. None have been charged with terrorism offences but the Crown Prosecution Service has said there was a 'terrorism connection'. The Ministry of Justice referred the Guardian to the Judicial Office, which said it could not comment on individual cases.
