Police ‘harassed' pensioner over Gaza protest T-shirt
Mick Napier, co-founder of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was arrested at a protest in Edinburgh on July 19 and spent a night in the cells before being released on bail on standard conditions.
He said that during President Trump's trip to Scotland last month, officers had visited his home seven times, claiming they were there to remind him of his bail conditions.
Napier's lawyer, Mark Harrower, has lodged a complaint with Police Scotland, claiming the actions were 'nothing short of harassment'.
In it, he wrote that his client was a 'peaceful protester against the killing and starvation of innocent civilians in Gaza' who had been released on bail on July 22.
Speaking to the Sunday Mail, he said: 'Since then, he has received seven separate visits from police officers at his home address to check whether he is aware of his bail conditions.'
• Record number of arrests at Palestine Action protests across UK
Harrower said that after the fourth visit, he had contacted the force to say Napier wanted the visits to stop. Yet they continued.
The lawyer wrote: 'The only possible explanation for these repeated visits is to intimidate my client and his wife.
'Not only is this a huge waste of police resources, this behaviour makes Scotland look like it is turning into a police state. It is nothing short of harassment.'
Harrower said that similar visits had been made to the homes of other protesters, raising concerns that police were becoming 'politically involved'.
He said: 'It was clearly designed to intimidate them into not participating in any protests when Trump was in the country because it would've been embarrassing.
'It's really concerning. It curtails people's right to protest and freedom of speech and shouldn't be happening.'
Palestine Action became a proscribed terrorist organisation last month after two Voyager military aircraft were vandalised at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20.
Membership of, or support for, the group became a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Police Scotland said: 'We carry out appropriate checks as required in line with conditions imposed by the courts.'
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