Dubsky in Ennis court on Tuesday for appeal

national | anti-war / imperialism | press release

Monday October 04, 2004 13:35

by Eoin Dubsky

087 6941060

Eoin Dubsky (24) will have another chance to make his case for spray-painting an American warplane at Shannon Airport in September 2002 when his appeal is heard before Judge Keys in Ennis courthouse on Tuesday, October 5th. Clare District Judge, J Mangan found him guilty of the charge of criminal damage last February, three months after his trial in Tulla District Court, where Dubsky's solicitor Paul O'Shea had mounted a robust defence of the action under Irish law and international law.

Travelling from his parent's home today in north Co. Wexford Dubsky said:
"Aircraft under U.S. military command continue to pass through Shannon Airport daily. No doubt they're carrying the stuff of Bush's so-called 'war on terrorism': weapons and explosives awaiting their fate in Iraq's defiant towns and neighbourhoods, 'terrorist suspects' awaiting their fate at the hands of CIA torturers, and all the rest."

Dubsky never contested that he had entered Shannon Airport the night of September 4th 2002 to spray the windows of, and write peace slogans on, a U.S. Air Force HC-130P "Hercules" in the centre of the airfield. Indeed he phoned the airport authorities when he was done and waited calmly for them to collect him.

He argues that the defense of necessity in the Criminal Damage Act and in international law permitted him to damage the warplane to help protect lives at risk from the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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NOTES:

Eoin Dubsky also began a judicial review in the High Court on 13 September 2002, concerning the legality of Irish Government permissions to allow U.S. military flights related to the war in Afghanistan pass through Ireland. The case is on the List for Fixed Dates and may be heard this autumn.

J Morgan handed down the following sentence when he found Dubsky guilty on February 13, 2003: The sentence was quite harsh too:
* Fined 1,000 euro
* 6 months suspended prison sentence
* Own bond of 50 euro, independent bond of 500 euro
* 2 years bound to the peace and banned from Co. Clare