THE vice-president of Scottish PEN – a branch of the international free speech organisation – has sounded a warning over Orwellian policing after she was arrested and charged under terrorism laws.
Lizzie Eldridge was arrested at her home by plain-clothes officers on September 18, before being taken to a Glasgow police station and charged under the Terrorism Act.
She is alleged to have shown support for a proscribed terrorist organisation, Palestine Action, by wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Genocide in Palestine time to take action” at a protest in Edinburgh on September 6.
Speaking to the Sunday National, the Scottish PEN vice-president said the impact of the proscription of Palestine Action on freedom of speech was “absolutely outrageous”.
“I mean, there's been a clampdown on freedom of expression in this country that's been slowly and insidiously creeping in, and has crept in over a number of years, and now we're seeing the full horror of it with what this Government is doing,” she said.
“It is bananas. It makes George Orwell's 1984 [world] look quite a nice place to live. It's totally illogical and it's totally mad.
“You just feel you're living in a psychiatric ward, and you have to keep your sanity, because the people who are putting straitjackets on others are completely barking mad.”
She added: “The T-shirts do not say ‘I support Palestine Action’. They state facts, and yet, because they have the words ‘Palestine’ and ‘action’, you're being arrested under the Terrorism Act, which is hilarious really.”
The Glasgow-born author said that, although she had been charged under terrorism laws, she had not been given a court date, any bail conditions, or even handcuffed when arrested.
Describing the situation as “black comedy”, Eldridge said that, when the two Edinburgh police officers first arrived at her close to arrest her, she was busy at work and asked them to come back at 1pm, a request they agreed to.
“It's all so amusing,” she said. “You're standing there going, ‘it's really inconvenient to be arrested under the Terrorism Act at this moment in my day. Could you leave it till later?’
“So, they left me alone in my terrorist house for two hours. I immediately sat down and started shaking. Suddenly, you're like, ‘fucking hell, the police just came to my door’.
“That idea of waiting for a knock on the door, which you read about, you write about, and then suddenly you get.
“I never, ever thought that knock on my door would ever come. It's intimidation. It's harassment.”
When the officers – one man and one woman – did return, Eldridge described being taken to be charged.
“Ironically, the guy said to me, ‘do you know where Cathcart police station is?’ It was like they'd never been to Glasgow before. I looked at the guy and I said, ‘funnily enough, no, I don't’.”
Eldridge said that the police officers “must know, in their heart of hearts, they must know that this is ridiculous”.
Responding to the arrest of their vice-president, Scottish PEN issued a statement saying it was “very gravely concerned” about counter-terror laws being “misused to suppress legitimate expression or protest”.
“Scottish PEN gives its full support to Lizzie Eldridge and the other writers and citizens who would exercise their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, in accordance with the PEN International Charter,” the organisation added.
PEN International was set up in 1921 and has since grown to become a leading writers' organisation campaigning "for a world where the right to freedom of expression is respected everywhere".
Amnesty International has previously said that alleged offences like Eldridge’s do not meet the threshold to face prosecution under terror laws.
Kerry Moscogiuri, the charity’s campaigns director, said earlier this month: “Criminalising protest speech is only permitted under the UK’s international human rights obligations when it incites violence, hatred or discrimination. Peacefully expressing support for Palestine Action clearly does not meet this threshold.”
“It is absurd and wrong for all these individuals to be hauled through the court system and treated as ‘terrorists’,” she added.
Asked if she believed free speech laws such as the European Convention on Human Rights would be sufficient to overturn any allegation of terrorism, Eldridge said: “It should be. One would imagine that, yes, you could easily overturn it. But in these strange times, who knows?
“In a logical, reasonable, rational society, it should be easy.”
In the weeks following the September 6 protest in Edinburgh, Police Scotland have arrested and charged around 20 other people under terrorism laws for allegedly supporting a proscribed organisation, according to the campaign groups Defend Our Juries and Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Police Scotland were approached for comment.
