A POWYS woman risked being arrested after she held a controversial sign outside a London court earlier this week.

Angie Zelter, 72, an environmental and peace campaigner from Knucklas, in Powys was part of a group of 25 people - including seven medical professionals, three Quakers, a former police officer, a former lawyer, two teachers, and a Church of England priest - who protested outside the Inner London Crown Court by displaying the signs.

The signs said that “a jury had a right to acquit based on their conscience” after they alledged members of Insulate Britain were prevented from sharing their motivations for blocking roads during their 2021 civil resistance campaign.

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“We need to struggle continually to keep our human rights. The UK is moving steadily towards a repressive authoritarian society,” said Ms Zelter.

“The right to protest and to a free and fair trial is essential in any true democracy. As these rights are now being eroded I have to act in solidarity with all those people trying to halt further climate change by their protests.”

Judge Silas Reid, presiding over the Insulate Britain trials at Inner London Crown Court, has already ordered the arrests of four people displaying the same message in close proximity to the court, with one of the cases having been referred to the Attorney General.

The group however claim it is “a justice lottery” as none of those displaying the same signs this week - including Ms Zelter - have been arrested, despite having delivered a letter to the court, addressed to Judge Reid, notifying him of their presence outside and explaining why they were there.

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The group claims that those facing trial under Judge Reid are banned “from mentioning the rights of jurors, the importance of morality in the application of British law, and the significance of why previously law-abiding citizens are prepared to risk breaking the law in order to uphold the collective right to survive.”

Indigo Rumbelow, 29, a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, from London, said: “Judge Reid faces a choice today: either he orders the arrest of the legal and health professionals, Quakers and teachers; or he retreats and pretends to ignore us, thus exposing his previous decisions as unprincipled and inconsistent. This is the dilemma we are posing to him.

“In 2023, knowing what we do, it is not possible for Judge Reid and other legal professionals involved in the criminalisation of people in peaceful civil resistance to ‘maintain’ their positions as moral and balanced custodians of British Law whilst also locking people up for sharing publicly available information.”