By IRNA,
London : British police have released fresh images of people they want to trace in connection with a direct action anti-tax avoidance protest held in parallel with last month’s mass march held in London against the Government’s public spending cuts.
Close-range photographs of 16 individuals include men in hooded tops and a woman with a painted clown face, who the police are still seeking to identify three weeks after up to half a million took part in the biggest demonstration in the British capital organised by the Trades Union Congress in two decades.
Detective Chief Superintendent Matthew Horne, who is is leading the investigation, code-named Operation Brontide, said “appalling acts of violence were committed on the day of the TUC march and there is an extensive operation under way to identify those responsible.’
A reported 201 arrests have been made following clashes with police in central London when banks and high street stores were targeted by UK Uncut protesters against corporate tax-avoidance.
A justice campaign has since been launched to defend some 145 people who are due to appear in court over the next two months for their part in occupying Fortnum & Mason’s luxury wine and food store in Piccadilly in protest against the company’s alleged complicity in tax avoidance.
UK Uncut, which has staged regular occupations of banks and shops over the past few months to highlight the billions that can be saved by closing loopholes in tax laws, has accused the police of carry out “political” arrests.
Fortnum 145 campaign group has criticised the “media spin” about violence and attacks in the protests and say there is video evidence of the peaceful occupation that undermine the claim.
A lawyer at a leading civil liberties firm has also expressed fears for the future of direct action protest in the UK after the mass arrest of corporate tax avoidance campaigners.
Matt Foot, a criminal defence solicitor at Birnberg Pierce, questioned the police motives, saying that the detention of 145 activists during an occupation of Fortnum and Mason was ‘unprecedented’.
‘To rush to treat people in this way and charge them on such a scale suggests the police want to make a statement. This is going to threaten the right to peacefully protest through direct action,’ Foot said.
‘Given the police’s public comments about violence on the demonstration, it is extraordinary that the overwhelming numbers of arrests and charges have been for non-violent protesters. One has to question the motivation behind this,’ he said.
London’s Metropolitan Police refused to comment on the controversy of the arrests, saying in a statement that the matter was “sub-judice” and that it would be “inappropriate to discuss further whilst proceedings are active.’