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Police anti-nuclear billing slapped down
Diet Simon - 14.02.2006 22:08
German police have failed with another attempt to scare off anti-nuclear protesters by billing them for police activities. An appellate court in Schleswig, northern Germany, has ruled illegal cost recovery demands by the federal police for protests by activists against transportation of nuclear waste.
One of the incidents was an action in March 2001 in which Robin Wood and local activists used concrete blocks to obstruct a transport to Gorleben.
Seven activists were sent bills totalling DM 14,301.28 (€7,312.12) for police costs for personnel, vehicles and equipment allegedly needed to clear the train tracks of the obstacles.
The activists filed an action against the police bills and won the case in a lower court on 22 February last year. The police appealed and have now lost in the higher court.
The Schleswig-Holstein upper administrative court states that the chain-on actions were assemblies under the protection of Article 8 of the constitution.
The police would have had to first expressly declare the gatherings disbanded, only then would they have been entitled to remove the activists from the rail bed.
This procedure had not been followed in any of the cases. The court rules that the constitutional protection applies also to gatherings on rail tracks which to enter is a priori a breach of public order. It also applies to gatherings which were previously declared illegal.
“The court has confirmed that there are no zones free of democracy. Railway lines are not sacrosanct, either,” says attorney Dieter Magsam, who represented one of the activists in court. “It was once more shown today how big-mouthed the statement of the former interior minister, Otto Schily, was when directly after the actions of the Castor opponents he threatened them that they’d have to pay the costs of the police activities.”
“Today’s judgement strengthens the freedom to demonstrate,” comments Jürgen Sattari, a spokesman for ROBIN WOOD. “Demonstrators must be able to count on being informed on location from when on a gathering is no longer under constitutional protection. Just presenting a bill afterwards doesn’t work.”
Contact:
Ute Bertrand, media spokesperson, Tel. 040 / 380 892 22,  presse@robinwood.de . More information about trials of ROBIN WOOD anti-nuclear activists ar at -AtomkraftgegnerInnen finden Sie unter: www.robinwood.de/prozesse .
Meanwhile the police trade union has said there must not be any Castor transport to Gorleben this year because of the soccer world championship games.
“The police are so stressed out by the championship and activities against the (neo-Nazi) NPD that the transport simply has to be delayed,” said the Lower Saxony head of the union, Bernhard Witthaut. “We can’t take any more!”
Witthaut wants the German government to intervene in France to delay the transport. Talks about this are said to be going well.
The Lower Saxony state government wants the transport to be shifted from autumn this year to February 2007 because of the strain on the police.
Next year 12 or even 18 Castor caskets of highly radioactive waste are due to roll from the uranium factory in La Hague, northern France, to Gorleben for “interim” storage.
German sources:
BGS darf nicht bei CASTOR-Gegnern abkassieren
 http://www.pressrelations.de/new/standard/result_main.cfm?aktion=jour_pm&comefrom=scan&r=221281
Polizei-Gewerkschaft: Kein Castor-Transport 2006 http://de.sports.yahoo.com/060214/27/6ryj.html
Other recent German anti-nuclear news:
German top court rules police action illegal
http://de.indymedia.org//2006/01/136125.shtml
Call for public control of disposal billions
http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/01/137336.shtml
Depleted uranium train stopped
http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/01/137233.shtml
State premier escalates atomic waste dispute http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/01/136607.shtml
"Discussing the right nuclear issue at last" http://germany.indymedia.org/2005/11/133422.shtml
Castor log
http://germany.indymedia.org/2005/11/133416.shtml
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