Barrister, 94, arrested again after blocking entrance to base ‘stationing US nukes’

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The 94-year-old human rights barrister was pictured taking part in the demonstration outside RAF Lakenheath against “illegal wars” involving the US and was timed to coincide with Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Ten activists from No More Bloody Wars used heavy-duty locks to attach themselves to a car and to each other outside the Suffolk base entrance.

It is understood that Ms Owen and Rajan Naidu, who have both taken part in similar protests before, were among those arrested at the scene and that she was released on “street bail.”

The barrister was held following a demonstration against the ban on Palestine Action in Liverpool during the Labour Party conference in September and after another Defend Our Juries protest on the issue outside the US embassy in London.

Ms Owen said that she “had been protesting for years on behalf of the Palestinians” while Mr Naidu, who had been arrested and charged following a protest in April outside Lakenheath, added: “I say we’re in peaceful civil resistance to injustice, to corruption, to war crimes, to crimes against humanity, against infanticide, genocide. That’s what we are.”

Ms Owen told the Morning Star that she was “thrilled” to have been arrested again and “rather proud” to be part of her first lock-in protest.

She added: “I’m just like everybody in this country — utterly horrified by the way we are supporting Israel genocide in Gaza and the other genocides we support as well.

“It’s unbelievable that we should have in this country US airforce who are now the servants of that literally malignant narcissist, lying, terrible corrupt man Donald Trump.

“He’s got his finger on the trigger and here we are. We signed a non-proliferation treaty of nuclear arms and we’ve got nuclear arms here in Britain.

“This makes all of the people in this country really targets for the US enemies. We are already warned aren’t we to stockpile canned foods and water because we are at war.

“Two UN commissions of inquiries, the International Court of Justice and hundreds of lawyers who know inside out every article in the convention against genocide have said Israel is perpetuating a terrible genocide.

“Ninety-four I may be, I’m still practising as a pro-bono lawyer on human rights and if people want to make a fuss about that I’m very happy to speak about it.’

The group, which arrived at the base from about 6.30am, called on the government to shut down US bases in Britain, to remove what it said was complicity in conflicts in the Middle East.

Four protesters chained and bolted themselves to a car parked outside the base.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary Sophie Bolt told the Morning Star that it is clear that the base stations US nuclear weapons and that US fighter pilots that have participated in military operations in support of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. 

“It is critical that [PM Andy] Burnham understands the strength of feeling against the stationing of US nuclear weapons at this base,” she added.

“At a time when the US is openly discussing the use of so-called tactical nuclear weapons in war, and when the current US president is repeatedly threatening to launch another round of illegal assaults on Iran, it is time that this government pulled the plug on the so-called special relationship.”

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