day 5
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Bread Not Bombs trial
Day 5
After more legal submissions (which cannot be reported until the trial ends), Stellan went back into the witness box.
He pointed the jury to the section of the "Tridenting It" handbook on non-violent safety guidelines, which showed how the Ploughshares movement takes care not to put any human being in danger.
He denied that his action with Annika and Ann-Britt had been intended to attract publicity for the CND demonstration on September 19.
"Disarmament" was the correct word to use for their action, because any damage to the submarine would prevent or delay it being equipped with Trident missiles. "It is one system - a missile cannot be fired without a submarine."
Vinthagen agreed, when asked by Judge Peter Openshaw whether he had seen it as a last opportunity before the vessel was rolled out on September 19, because of security at Faslane.
"In Barrow the security was not that high, it was more possible to carry out our practical disarmament," he told the jury at Preston Crown Court.
He said how he had taken the "Tridenting It" handbook with him, which explained the parts inside and outside the submarine where the greatest damage could be caused, based on the information of experts.
"If we had succeeded, more than 25 per cent of the whole British nuclear capability would have been disarmed - that would be 25 per cent less risk of accidents, 25 per cent less of a threat to the poor of the Third World."
Vinthagen said he was motivated by his duty as a citizen, as explained in the Nuremberg Principles, to prevent "war crimes".
"Even if the Government says it is lawful, it is your right and duty under international law to prevent these war crimes and crimes against humanity," he said.
The Geneva Conventions, the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Conventions were all part of British law and had formed the basis of the ruling from the International Court of Justice that the threat or use of nuclear weapons was unlawful.
He and other members of the Ploughshares movement, which takes the Biblical prophesy about beating swords into ploughshares as its motto, had sent letters to the Government and tried other ways of halting Trident, including "citizens' summonses", in an attempt to test the legality of Trident in the courts.
"But no court has had the courage to act against the encormous economic investments in nuclear weapons and the enormous political interests involved."
Nicholls, for the prosecution, asked Stellan whether he would follow his conscience even if it was contrary to the law. No, he said, that would lead to chaos. "You need to justify what you are doing together with other people. An essential part of democracy is to publicly argue about what you are doing. But in a case of mass murder, as in this case, I would follow my conscience and try and convince other people.
"If I can't convince other people that what I believe is right, then I deserve to go to prison."
He agreed that preparations had included the document that "indicted" Vickers workers in Barrow of war crimes, and also accused everyone else of the crime of "passivity".
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Andrew Hobbs (NUJ)
8 Hampton Street
Preston
Lancashire
PR2 2JL
UK
01772 721466
