Lincoln: Anti-drone protesters convicted of criminal damage

Anti-drone campaigners

Two men and two women were convicted of criminal damage yesterday at a court in Lincoln, over an anti-drone demonstration in January in which they cut a wire fence and entered an RAF base to pray and protest. Armed drones are increasingly being used around the world and have killed and injured thousands of men, women and children in addition to destroying their military targets.

Lincoln Magistrates' Court heard how the protesters, from Oxford, Nottingham, Leicester and Coventry, had been seen by police at the south end of the runway at RAF Waddington wearing hi-visibility jackets and holding banners.

They received a conditional discharge for two years and were fined £337 each. They were: Christopher Cole, a Catholic from Oxford; Gary Eagling, a Methodist from Nottingham, Katharina Karcher, Coventry and Penelope Walker, Leicester.

The group said they had entered the base with the intent of preventing more drone strikes on innocent people. Speaking after their trial, Cole said: "The use of drones should be seen as a war crime. We spent two days setting out our argument that RAF Waddington drones are killing innocent civilians."

He said the judge told them their actions would not have prevented drone operations, but acknowledged they were "sincere and honest" in their beliefs. Cole added that the judge had said: "arguments about the legality of drone strikes was not a matter for this court".

The defendants said they were disappointed with the verdict, but understood the reasons for it. They pledge to continue their campaign against the use of drones.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has estimated that 98% of victims of drone strikes are "collateral damage," or in more human terms, civilians, children, or suspected militants who are either minor, low-level affiliates or whose involvement with militants has never been proven.

The BIJ estimates that nearly 4,000 total casualties have resulted from US drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. As many as 954 have been civilians, and as many as 225 have been children. The high number of casualties includes anyone who the US deems suspicious, which could mean they were driving suspected militants, attending a funeral of a suspected militant, or carrying a weapon.