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AIDEX PROTEST ARRESTS
Chaotic courts
as protesters
are dealt with
By TONIA LIOSATOS
Canberra had experienced
yesterday an "extraordinary"
and "violent" day, Australian
Federal Police officer Superin-
tendent Chris Lathbury told
the ACT Magistrates Court
yesterday.
Superintendent Lathbury was re-
ferring to the Aidex protest and, in
particular, the many arrests, includ-
ing that of Senator Jo Vallentine, for
breaching the peace at the Natex
Centre.
Natex has been the site of a
demonstration against the
selling of warfare weaponry
and Australia's role in arms
sales over the past few days.
The protesters were ar-
rested at about lunchtime
and knowledge of their arrest
caused a communal head-
ache at the ACT Magistrates
Court.
And thus began a long and
chaotic day for everyone:
court staff, protesters, police
and magistrates alike.
The system could just not
cope, with having so many
people arrested at the same
time.
Earlier in the day eight
protesters, who had been ar-
rested on Sunday, were dealt
with by the Chief Magistrate,
Ron Cahill, for offences rang-
ing from assault occasioning
actual bodily harm and re-
sisting police, to obstruction.
The court heard that one police
man had a broken nose, and one of
the protesters said she had been ar-
rested while she had been trying to
help someone the police had been
physically assaulting.
The matters to which not-guilty
pleas were entered were held over to
different dates.
And the protesters who had
pleaded guilty, mainly for the ob-
struction charges, were fined $ 150.
Although the general feeling in
the morning was that other protest-
ers might be brought before the
court later in the day, no-one was
prepared for what actually hap-
pened.
Arrested protesters were still go-
ing through the courts at 8.30 last
night.
Three magistrates' courts were
working to deal with all the people.
The first of the protesters did not
appear in court until about 5.25pm.
This was after much hiccupping
over, among other things, what the
none Help
protesters had been charged with, if
they had actually been charged and
how the court was going to proceed
with the matters.
Mr Cahill expressed his desire to
get the protesters out of custody as
quickly as possible.
As the court rose to greet Mr Cah-
ill at 5.25pm, one of the arrested
protesters, Oscar Zeet, yelled out, "I
never stand for you people." It is
court protocol to stand while magis-
trates are standing.
Mr Cahill warned that he would
closc the court to the public if such
comments continued.
However, proceedings were halt-
ed when the Director of Public Pros
ecutions, Ken Crispin, asked the
court to clarify whether the protest-
ers had actually committed an of
fence, or whether the protesters
would be asked to enter into an
order directing them to keep the
peace until Aidex was over.
If the protesters had not commit-
ted an offence then the DPP had no
role to play in the proceedings, he
said.
The court was then ad-
journed, not for the first time
that day, so that the nature of
the proceedings could be de-
termined.
It resumed about half an
hour later, and it was discov-
ered that the protesters had
not been charged with any
ofFence but would be asked to
comply with an order to keep
the peace.
The protesters would have
to inform the. court whether
they would resist, or enter in-
to the order.
Most resisted and were re-
leased without bail being re-
quired, until in most cases
Wednesday.
By Wednesday Mr Cahill
will have heard one protest-
er's case. He will, as the evi-
dence in every case is similar,
use this matter as a test case
to iron out any further legal
problems, and to ascertain the evi-
dence against the protesters.
At one stage, Mr Cahill said the
police had obviously acted in the
way they had because there had
been a need for them to do so.
Superintendent Lathbury, acting
on behalf of the police informants,
said it was the right of the general
public to go on public streets and
attend public places.
Freedom of speech and freedom
to demonstrate were also important
rights, he said.
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