MIGRANT rights activists held a rally outside Belfast City Hall yesterday to show their solidarity with a group of protesters just hours before they were spared jail.
The Stansted 15 protestors, who chained themselves to a plane to stop a mass deportation charter flight from taking off in March last year, were found guilty in December of breaching aviation terror laws.
At a court hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday, three were given suspended jail terms and 12 received community orders.
The defendants have said they will appeal against their convictions, which they believe have serious implications for the freedom to protest.
Speakers at the Belfast demonstration had called for the charges to be dropped and for an end to the British Government’s hostile environment immigration policies.
They included journalist Barry McCaffrey who, along with fellow journalist Trevor Birney, recently faced arrest for their work on the ‘No Stone Unturned’ documentary into collusion.
The rally was also attended by Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland programmes director of Amnesty International, Chamindra Weerawardhana of Black Lives Matter Belfast, Nombuso Sithole of Housing4All, Olivia Potter-Hughes of NUS-USI, Patrick Mulholland, president of NIPSA, and Aylisha Hogan of End Deportations Belfast.
Passing sentence, Judge Christopher Morgan told the 15 that while he accepted the group were seeking to demonstrate in support of their cause, they had come "perilously close" to causing a catastrophe.
The runway was closed for more than an hour and 23 incoming flights had to be diverted to other airports.
During sentencing, barristers for the 15 said they were motivated by their conscience and determination to prevent the 60 deportees, headed for Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, from facing the risk of death.
Eleven of the passengers are still in the UK today after their cases for staying in the country were re-examined.
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