While negotiations for an Arms Trade Treaty take place in New York, Coalition Government ministers will be participating in trade days at Farnborough. Vince Cable, Business Secretary, with overall responsibility for the government arms sales unit, UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO), will be there on Monday 19 July. Defence Minister Liam Fox, who has explicitly stated that arms sales should be a foreign policy tool, will attend on Tuesday 20 July.

Peter Luff, Defence Equipment Minister, is reported to have said: “There will be a very, very, very heavy ministerial commitment to the process. There is a sense that in the past we were rather embarrassed about exporting defence products. There is no such embarrassment in this Government.”

CAAT says that the statement is unusual in its frankness but, in reality, there is little difference from the policies pursued by the Labour Government. Government support for the arms industry already runs into billions of pounds per annum, including Research & Development spending, generous procurement arrangements and government-backed insurance. Arms exports receive disproportionate support from the special sales unit in UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO).

Full press release

Rooftop occupation at Heckler & Koch

On May 20th at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court, anti-arms-trade activist Kirk Jackson was found guilty of aggravated trespass for his part in a protest that shut down an arms company for a day. He was given a twelve month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £350 court costs.

The charge arose from a February 18th protest at the Nottingham warehouse of international arms company Heckler & Koch. Before dawn, four activists locked themselves to the gates, preventing employees from entering, while Kirk and another activist climbed onto the roof and displayed banners accusing the company of “arming repressive regimes”.

Heckler & Koch has been the target of demonstrations since 2007 when Nottingham residents discovered its presence on the Lenton Lane industrial estate. The company has a long history of supplying weapons to unstable regions, and using licensed production deals in order to evade arms embargoes. This was the first direct action taken against the company.

The other five activists had already pleaded guilty and been sentenced on March 17th.

Heckler & Koch MD Mike Thornton

Mike Thornton, the Managing Director of Heckler & Koch was in court as a witness, and his performance was revealing: Having sworn to tell the whole truth, he baulked when cross-examined about his company’s activities.

Most notably, when asked if his company carried out manufacturing at its Lenton Lane industrial unit, he looked uncomfortable and asked the magistrates “Is it necessary to discuss that?” His response confirmed campaigners’ long-held suspicions that the warehouse is used to assemble automatic weapons.

Mr Thornton was given a copy of the Shut Down H&K campaign’s December 2009 open letter to him and asked if he had seen it before. He admitted to having received the letter, in which serious concerns about H&K were raised, and to having decided to ignore it. He did however concede that citizens have a legitimate right to protest against companies such as his.

The 18th Feb blockade of Heckler & Koch

The prosecution’s police witness was Chief Inspector Stephen Haylett, who characterised the protest as “about as good-natured as they get”. This left the prosecution struggling to convince the court that Thornton was a victim of intimidation. In his statement, the arms company boss claimed that the protest left him feeling “vulnerable and intimidated.” ”It was not known if [the protesters] were armed with any type of missiles,” said the man with the warehouse full of guns. (In fact, the reams of police video footage played in court showed the defendant wielding nothing more threatening than a cheese & pickle sandwich.)

It was Chief Inspector Haylett who told the activists on H&K’s roof that their banners would be returned, but in court he claimed that he couldn’t remember this, and so the bench agreed to the Crown’s request to destroy them. Fortunately, the campaign has already received a replacement banner from fellow anti-militarists in Germany.

Campaigners outside Nottingham Magistrates' Court

Despite the disappointing verdict, Kirk remains positive. “I’m glad I took the case to trial,” he said. “Companies like Heckler & Koch are profiting from war and repression with the support of the UK government. The arms industry must be opposed.”

The six activists have been left with a total of £825 in fines plus costs but this is a fraction of the cost to the company of being closed down for a day. On an average working day, Heckler & Koch’s Nottingham unit exports over £35 000 of arms and makes more than £12 500 profit.

If you would like to help the activists to pay their costs, you can donate via the Shut Down H&K website.

• corruption
• selling weapons to repressive regimes
• targeting students and influencing university research agendas
• undermining South Africa’s democracy
• misleading the public about its commitment to British jobs.

When asked for their decision, the People’ Jury was unanimous: GUILTY!

Meanwhile, CAAT supporters pursued the shorter and more lifelike version of Dick Olver inside with relentless and detailed questions on corruption. Olver’s response was comically shallow and scripted: repeating several times that BAE would “self-report” anything dodgy they found out about or knew. Andrew Feinstein (former ANC MP) called for him to resign on this issue.

Other comedy moments came when Olver described how BAE are “doing our bit” for the environment: limiting their number of corporate jets to one and profiting from a couple of small renewables spin-offs from their military work.

CAAT activists will continue to ensure that while BAE managed to escape justice in the courts, they will not achieve the same feat in the court of public opinion. If you want to add your judgement to the People’s Jury, you can do so here.

But campaigners at Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) have hit upon a novel way to bring these alleged corporate criminals to justice. A website, BAE:The People’s Jury has been set up to invite members of the public to air their views on BAE’s activities.

The website includes useful information on BAE’s activities and invites comments from interested members of the public. It already features hard-hitting contributions from prominent US academic Mike Koehler and the anti-corruption campaigner, former ANC MP, Andrew Feinstein whose blog details how BAE’s dealings have undermined South Africa’s fledgling democracy.

BAE: The People’s Jury is open to everybody and all are invited to contribute their thoughts.

CAAT is also hoping that supporters will join them on 5 May, the day of BAE’s AGM. A People’s Jury will chase an effigy of BAE Chairman Dick Olver from the headquarters of the government’s arms sales department (UKTI DSO) to the AGM venue at QEII Conference Centre in Westminster.

Campaigners hope that the People’s Jury campaign will result in a major embarrassment for BAE’s board as campaigners pose tough questions at the AGM.

More details on the day’s events are available on BAE: The People’s Jury website.

For further information or an interview please contact one of CAAT’s Campaigns Co-ordinators, Sarah Waldron or Anne-Marie O’Reilly on 020 7281 0297. Email addresses are sarah@caat.org.uk or anne-marie@caat.org.uk

Kaye Stearman of CAAT said: “We are obviously disappointed by the Judge’s decision to refuse permission. It implies that the law allows a giant company to pay a small financial penalty for `accounting irregularities’ rather than be charged and tried in open court on more serious criminal charges.The law should apply to all without fear, favour or prejudice.”

Nicholas Hildyard of The Corner House said: “Corruption is a serious and harmful crime and should be treated as such. Prosecutors’ guidelines have been drawn up to ensure that it is. The public needs to have confidence that justice can be served by the new plea bargaining system in which corporates negotiate their crime and punishment.”

The two groups had argued that the proposed settlement is unlawful because:

• the SFO did not follow the correct prosecution guidance (including its own guidance) on plea bargains
• the agreement does not reflect the seriousness and extent of BAE’s alleged corruption;
• the agreement does not provide the court with adequate sentencing powers
• the public interest factors weighing in favour of prosecuting BAE on bribery and corruption charges outweigh those against prosecution.

Under the SFO’s proposed settlement, BAE would plead guilty in court only to “accounting irregularities” in its 1999 sale of a radar system to Tanzania and would pay penalties of £30 million. The SFO would not bring prosecutions relating to alleged bribery and corruption in BAE’s arms deals elsewhere, including in the Czech Republic, South Africa and Romania, and would close all its BAE investigations.

The judge also refused to grant permission to bring a full judicial review hearing against the SFO’s decision to discontinue its prosecution of Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly with conspiracy to corrupt in connection with BAE’s deals with eastern and central European governments.

Honourable Mr Justice Collins did, however, extend the injunction in force against the SFO from seeking court approval of its BAE settlement for a further eight days and continuing if the groups lodge an appeal.

ENDS

For further information or an interview please contact:
Kaye Stearman of CAAT, on 020 7281 0297 or 07990 673 232 or email press@caat.org.uk

Nicholas Hildyard of The Corner House on 01258 473795 or 07773 750 534 or email enquiries@thecornerhouse.org.uk.

The injunction is in force until the Court has decided whether or not to give permission to Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and The Corner House to apply for a judicial review of the settlement. It will make this decision by 20 March 2010.

Lawyers acting for The Corner House and CAAT formally lodged papers seeking judicial review permission on Friday 26 February 2010, together with a request for the injunction.

For more information and to sign CAAT’s statement go to www.caat.org.uk

Heckler and Koch is the world’s second largest manufacturer of handguns, assault rifles, submachine guns, machine guns and grenade launchers (1). Millions of H&K weapons are currently in use in over 90 countries, falling into the hands of child soldiers in Africa, terrorists in the Middle East, militias in Darfur, rebels in Nigeria, arms traffickers in the Philippines, mercenaries in Iraq and organised criminals in Serbia. Heckler & Koch weapons have been used by armed forces in conflicts in which those forces have been accused by international monitors of war crimes, including Bosnia in 1991, South Ossetia in 2008 and Sri Lanka in 2009. In total, H&K weapons are estimated to have caused 1.5 million deaths worldwide to date.

Heckler and Koch’s office in Nottingham is responsible for ‘international customer sales and customer services’ for non-NATO countries. There is evidence to suggest that Heckler And Koch have used the UK to make and sell weapons to countries that it has been prohibited from selling to by the German government due to concerns over repression and human rights abuses, including Nigeria, Kenya, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Lebanon and Georgia. Those who flee the suffering and conflict caused by these weapons often seek refuge and asylum in countries such as the UK, to be met with violent and oppressive border regimes and immigration systems that force them to return against their will to the countries they fled from.

The office in Easter Park in Lenton has been a target for the Shut Down H&K campaign for over a year. The campaign was established by local residents in 2008 who were outraged at the presence of such an unethical company in their city, and has been holding monthly demonstrations and pickets outside the offices and in the market square to raise awareness and protest against the company’s unethical activity. In December 2009, the campaign sent an open letter to the company asking for information regarding Heckler and Koch’s recent activities, but is yet to receive a reply (2). It is due to this lack of response from the company that the campaign feels today’s activities are necessary in order to place further pressure on the company.

Notes for the editor:
(1) Heckler and Koch are a German company with offices in the UK, France and the US. Sources for the information presented here are available on request. For more information regarding the sale of Heckler and Koch guns to repressive regimes, conflict zones, and human rights abusers, please see recent posts on the campaign’s website (address given above).
(2) A copy of the letter can be found here: http://www.shutdownhk.org.uk/an-open-letter-to-heckler-koch/

While the acceptance of guilt in relation to Tanzania is welcome, the investigations related to other countries including South Africa and the Czech Republic were far more significant. SFO investigations of deals with several countries were continuing up until today, and only last week the SFO charged a former BAE agent with corruption in relation to deals with several European countries.

The SFO settlement was announced in conjunction with the US Department of Justice whose fine concerned BAE’s deals with Saudi Arabia. While the combined fine is more significant, the UK penalty of £30 million is a tiny price for BAE to pay to see the end of the investigations that had been gathering evidence for years and were coming to a head.

Kaye Stearman, spokesperson for CAAT, says:

“CAAT is outraged and angry that the allegations about BAE will not be aired in a criminal court and that the Serious Fraud Office has accepted a plea bargain relating only to the smallest deal. After the Government stopped the SFO’s inquiry into the company’s Saudi deals, it was even more important the truth about its dealings in central and eastern Europe and Africa was made public. One day a former BAE agent appears in court charged with corruption, the next BAE is let off for an accounting misdemeanour.”

Nicholas Hildyard for The Corner House says:

“Given BAE’s admission of guilt today in the US concerning the Al-Yamamah contract, the UK should re-open its own Saudi Arabian investigation immediately. The company’s admission obviously calls into question its repeated denials of any wrong doing. Far from drawing a line under the allegations, today’s announcement simply raises far more questions and creates yet further demands for justice.”

Background

In December 2006 the SFO dropped its corruption investigations into BAE’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia, following pressure from BAE and the Saudi regime and a direct intervention from then Prime Minister Tony Blair. The decision was subject to severe criticism and prompted CAAT and The Corner House to launch a Judicial Review of the decision. In April 2008, the High Court ruled that the SFO Director had acted unlawfully by stopping the investigation – a decision subsequently overturned by the House of Lords.

The SFO began drawing up the legal papers for the recommended prosecution against BAE on 1 October 2009, following its six-year investigation into alleged bribery in BAE arms deals with several other countries (Chile, Czech Republic, Qatar, Romania, South Africa and Tanzania). BAE is alleged to have paid bribes, often in the form of commissions to “advisers” on the deals, to clinch the sales.

On 29 January 2010, the SFO charged Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly with conspiracy to corrupt in connection with BAE’s deals with eastern and central European governments including the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria. On 4 February he appeared in Westminster Magistrates Court where he was released on bail under conditions. The next day the SFO dropped all charges “in the public interest” and Mensdorff-Pouilly left the UK.

For further information or an interview please contact:
Kaye Stearman of CAAT, on 020 7281 0297 or 07990 673 232
or Nicholas Hildyard of The Corner House on 01258 473795

On Tuesday 2nd February 2010 in London, there will be a discussion of the growing anti-militarist movements in Latin America, featuring activists Pelao Carvallo, a Chilean living in Paraguay, and Rafael Uzcategui from Venezuela. This event will be presented by War Resisters’ International and hosted at Housmans radical bookshop, and will be conducted in English and Spanish, with interpreters.

Housmans has been selling radical books for fifty years, and is one of the last remaining radical bookshops in London. The biggest threat to independent bookshops is Amazon, which imposes poor conditions on its workers, and whose near-monopoly allows it to squeeze small publishers. Housmans recently launched its own online bookshop, with half a million titles, to provide an ethical alternative to Amazon.

The event will begin at 19:00, and the address is 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DX (nearest tube King’s Cross).