The trial of
the pro-Palestine activist, Tony Greenstein, for expressing his opinions on
social media, is not unique. There are in excess of over 10,000 people a year
being arrested or questioned by the British police for comments that they have
made on social media. Some of these have received lengthy prison sentences.
Sir Keir
Starmer, the former UK Labour Prime Minister, told the Trump administration
when he was in America, that Britain was proud of its record on free speech.
Tony Greenstein was charged under the Terrorism Act and faced up to 14 years’
imprisonment for posting three Tweets and we're led to believe that we have
freedom of speech in the UK.
I'm not
surprised the jury took the decision to acquit him. Tony Greenstein denied
being a supporter of Hamas and denied inviting support for Hamas, but he was
charged and tried for inviting support for a prescribed organisation. He also
says that many of the posts on his blog substantiate this, but the Judge
wouldn't allow this to be used in evidence, for the defence. The defence asked
the judge if she intended to "micro-manage"
the whole trial when she wanted to know what questions the defence were going
to ask police witnesses. They also accused Sussex police of redacting much of
what Tony Greenstein had said in an interview. The country is fast becoming a
police state.
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