Today, Tuesday 30 June, supporters of the Defend SOAS2 campaign turned up in force at court, as we have done every day of Sarah’s trial. The jury having been sent out yesterday, we expected a verdict to be delivered today. However, this was not to be and we will be back outside the Old Bailey again tomorrow.
Tasked with deciding this crucial case for free speech and the Palestine movement in Britain, the jury was unable to come to a unanimous conclusion on Sarah’s guilt or innocence on the charge of ‘encouraging support for a proscribed organisation’ contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The judge then issued a ‘majority direction’ that ten out of 12 jurors would be sufficient to convict. However, the jury appears to be struggling with that too.
‘Hung juries’ have become a common feature of the trials of pro-Palestine activists, with the Filton 25, Moog 4, Hanan Barghouti and Majid Freeman all experiencing a full trial with no definitive outcome, followed by the prospect of a retrial. The Crown Prosecution Service does not have to reprosecute a case after the jury has failed to convict or acquit but repeatedly insists on doing so. Draining as this may be, it is a situation we can also use to our advantage. As Majid Freeman told supporters outside Birmingham Crown Court when his s12 trial ended in an impasse: ‘A retrial… means the evidence of what Israel has done to Gaza, the brutality, the systematic destruction of an entire people, will once again be placed before a jury of the British public. Let them see it again. Let the world be reminded again.’
Over the seven days we have assembled in support of Sarah, the pavement outside the Old Bailey has become a site of protest and of education. In the 1980s comrades from Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! were involved in a non-stop picket of the racist apartheid South African embassy. There we held regular ‘pavement universities’ to educate ourselves on aspects of the international struggle. Today a comrade facilitated an ‘Old Bailey pavement university’ on the topic of lessons we can learn from past solidarity movements.
WE WILL BE BACK OUTSIDE THE OLD BAILEY FROM 10AM ON WEDNESDAY 1 JULY, WHEN WE EXPECT THERE WILL FINALLY BE AN OUTCOME IN THE CASE. STAND WITH US TILL VICTORY!
