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Prosecution appeals acquittals of arms fair protestors

The acquittals for eight people who protested at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2015 conference in London are being appealed by the prosecution, Hodge Jones & Allen has learned.

The eight, who were acquitted on 15 April 2016 following a trial at Stratford Magistrates’ Court, had successfully claimed that they had blocked entry to the conference in September 2015 on the basis that they believed that unlawful and illegal weapons were being promoted there.

Raj Chada and Adeela Khan, lawyers in the criminal defence team at Hodge Jones & Allen, represented five of the defendants: Isa al-Aali (21); Thomas Franklin (57); Javier Gárate Neidhardt (36); Luis Tinoco Torrejon (40); and Bram Vranken (25).

Raj, who leads the firm’s protest unit, said: “It is hugely disappointing that the Crown Prosecution Service continues to act against our clients when the real investigation should take place into the activities at the bi-annual DSEI conference.”

The DSEI event organisers said that 34,038 delegates attended the 2015 exhibition with 1,683 global defence and security organisations from 54 countries exhibiting. The next event takes place in September 2017.

https://www.hja.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Abdulla-judgement-Autosaved-1.pdf

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