Christian freed after being arrested for distributing biblical quotations
Stephen Green, a Christian, was arrested on September the 2nd, 2006.His crime was that he was handing out leaflets which contain biblical quotes which express the Christian views towards homosexuality.
It was reported that Mr Green was arrested by the South Wales Minorities Support Unit because "the leaflet contained biblical quotes about homosexuality". Mr Green confirmed that the leaflets did contain statements such as "turn from your sins and you will be saved". Obviously, this material is a danger to the public, as far as South Wales police are concerned.
Mr Green had been in attendance at the Cardiff Mardi Gras, when his harrassment began.
He was initially asked to leave the park in which the event was taking place, which he agreed to do.
Upon taking up a place, on a public street, outside the entrance of the event, Mr Green was then subject to the police asking him to stop distributing his leaflets with biblical quotations, from his place on a public street.
Stephen Green refused, and was arrested by the Minorities Support Unit of South Wales Police.
Mr Green was interrogated for four hours, after which he refused to accept a police caution, and was then charged by the police under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.
On Thursday, 28th September, 2006, the case against Stephen Green was dropped by Cardiff Magistrates Court, as there was no evidence to present against the defendent.
That's right, no evidence against the defendent that he had commited any crime.
On what basis then, had South Wales Police arrested him?
Despite not having any evidence of any criminal wrongdoing by Stephen Green, South Wales Police, instead of apologising to Mr Green, have actually stated that they still believe that they were right to arrest him in the first place!
Mr Greens solicitor has stated that his clients arrest is an "abuse of police powers", and that his client is considering legal action against South Wales Police, an action likely to succeed on the basis of the Human Rights Act, entitling Mr Green to religous freedoms, and freedoms to express those viewpoints.
posted by Winston Smith at 10:47 pm
2 Comments:
hi im brendan, canadian and bi-. it seemed to me at the beginning of your page that you were a well meaning citizen of the commonwealth. after reading your comments here i am not so sure. are you defending this mans right to freedom of expression or his right to 'freedom of discrimination'?
brendanzo@hotmail.com
Well, that would depend upon how you view the subject matter.
Essentially, I'm defending his right to hand out printed literature.
Barring obscenity, I don't think that there should be any state interference in the rights of the individual to express their thoughts.
The political right to hand out literature, on this occasion, should have been enjoyed by all, but was denied to one minority group.
Which do you think it is?
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