Margie Pestorious and David Spriggs faced court on November 5 on charges relating to a protest at one of Boeing’s Magan-djin/Brisbane offices in January. Dozens of people showed their solidarity outside the court.
“We want to put Boeing on trial,” spokesperson Andy Paine told Green Left, adding that the two activists are pleading “not guilty”.
Pestorious told media: “We are on trial for acts of peace-making”. “This action occurred one week after South Africa made the case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that this was a genocide.”
According to Pestorious, all states and corporations have an obligation to stop arming Israel in light of the ICJ ruling and that the activists are vindicated in targeting Boeing for its complicity in war crimes.
Paine said: “It's incredible that after a year of watching the horrific atrocities committed by Israel in Palestine ... that in Australia there’s nothing, no charges against anybody involved in that.
“Yet, the people who are trying to peacefully, creatively, non-violently intervene in this process, they're the ones who are on trial.”
Counter terrorism police raided the homes and arrested some of those people who had taken part in the January protest.
Pestorious said “the charges we're facing are ‘intent to commit an indictable offence’, and that indictable offence is ‘wilful damage’, and that ‘wilful damage’ is pasting pictures of dead children on a glass cabinet [at Boeing] that was filled with aircraft that had been built for war crimes.”
Four activists were charged. One will plead guilty and another will face trial at a later date.
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