UK cops unlawfully prevented an anti-Iraq war protest

British police have illegally prevented anti-war protesters from attending a mass rally outside a Royal Air Force (RAF) base in 2003, a court has found.

Hundreds of protesters left London to attend the demonstrations against British government war mongering policies two days after the US-led forces launched their air attack on Iraq from the Fairford airbase in March 2003.

The demonstrators, however, were denied their right to a peaceful rally by Gloucester police while they were a few miles short of the airfield. The protesters were then sent back to the capital under police escort.

Central London County Court, ruled on Friday that the officers had breached protesters’ rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly as they had no legal powers to stop them from heading toward the airfield.

Judge David Mitchell said the police action “was an interference with the right of ordinary citizens to go about their business”.

“The vast majority of them, as this case has proved, were decent, hard-working people who had never been in trouble with the police,” he added.

The RAF Fairford was being used by the US air force in 2003 for long-range bombing missions against Iraq when the conflict had just started.