Judgment coming NOW in the challenge against the Metropolitan Police's ban imposed on the Sarah Everard vigil #reclaimthesestreets
Mr Justice Holgate: This vigil is being organised following the tragic death of Sarah Everard. It's being organised at Clapham Common. Their objective is to hold a vigil safely and lawfully particularly in the context of the pandemic. Two of the claimants are local councillors.
Mr Justice Holgate: The event the court understands is supported by Lambeth Council, the local authority. The initial engagement with the police appeared to be positive and there was a plan to meet yesterday to work out how to hold the vigil safely.
Judge: But the Met Police then said their hands were tied and the vigil would be illegal under coronavirus regulations, organisers could be fined £10k and face arrest under the Serious Crime Act.
Judge: The objective of the [legal action] is to ask the court to that the police need to take into account the Human Rights Act and specifically the rights to free speech and free assembly before they ban the vigil.
The judge says the Met Police's "Operation Pima" document summarises the covid regulations and the police's role in enforcing the 2021 lockdown. It states that gatherings for protests are not exempt from the lockdown and will need to be dealt with.
Mr Justice Holgate: It's important to note that the court is not being asked to grant an injunction against the police. The question is whether the police changed their stance without considering the right to protest.
BREAKING: Mr Justice Holgate refuses to intervene in the challenge against the Metropolitan Police's ban imposed on the Sarah Everard vigil in London.
Mr Justice Holgate did seem to leave the door open: "Given what has happened in the hearing there may well be further communication between the claimants & the police to deal with the application of the regulations [& the right to protest] to this particular event."
"But that is not a matter on which the court should comment," said the judge.

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More from @BBCDomC

12 Mar
Ok ... legal challenge to the Met Police's ban on the Reclaim These Streets / Sarah Everard vigil is now beginning. Tom Hickman QC will be making the firest submissions for the organisers of tomorrow's proposed event.
Mr Justice Holgate begins by saying that he and all others taking part in the hearing express their sympathies to the family of Sarah Everard.
The submissions re the ban on the vigil are going to take about an hour. Tom Hickman QC says the proposed event is a vigil and a protest. It would be socially-distanced.
Read 23 tweets
12 Mar
Sarah Everard / Reclaim These Streets vigil: We're waiting at the High Court to see if the organisers' challenge to the Met Police's ban on tomorrow's event, under Covid regulations, will lead to a full hearing in court.
The challenge could be dealt with "on the papers" - so a judge reads the case for and against and gives their view. It could be a full hearing in open court. Or it could be resolved out of court, if Scotland Yard were to change its mind.
The issue for a judge looks simple: Do police have the power to ban the vigil in south London, under the Covid regulations? But it's more complicated than that.
Read 10 tweets
4 Jan
BREAKING: British judge REFUSES to approve Julian Assange's extradition to the USA because of his severe mental health problems and likely suicide.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser rules that while US prosecutors met the tests for Mr Assange to be extradited for trial, the US is incapable of preventing him from attempting to take his own life - and therefore extradition would be oppressive.
Court reconvening after 1130 to discuss what happens next. US is planning to appeal. Assange's team want him freed on bail.
Read 5 tweets
4 Jan
Julian Assange judgment now full swing - some difficulties with the virtual link now resolved. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser at the Old Bailey is giving her decision on the US extradition request. Outlining evidence of his self harm and suicidal thoughts. #AssangeExtradition
DJ Baraitser says half a razor blade was once found in his cell. "The overall impression is of a depressed and sometimes despairing man fearful for his future."
If convicted in the US, Mr Assange could be placed in special supermax prison measures - basically near total solitary confinement with exceptional limits on social interaction with prison guards.
Read 4 tweets
17 Dec 20
Less than 350 HOURS now from full-flavour Brexit. Here are the facts about how the UK will crash out of a host of security, criminal justice and crime-fighting tools keeping you safe. Police will lose lose many of these even if there is a deal: bbc.co.uk/news/explainer…
The UK will be ejected from the European Arrest Warrant (although it does have its critics); it will have a totally unclear relationship with Europol and its joined-up cross-border organised crime investigations.
SIS 2 - jargon name for a massively important database providing millions of insta-alerts to frontline policing and border security: Criminal on the run in Europe? Possibly in the UK? SIS 2 sends the alert. Home Office has no choice but to unplug the UK's connection.
Read 12 tweets
11 Nov 20
There is a livestream of the undercover policing inquiry here - but it is virtually unusable for reporters trying to follow it remotely. The words are appearing via a fast scrolling video feed that can't be paused or rewound: ucpi.org.uk/hearing/eviden…
1) I can't type that fast to copy down everything. If I could hear the audio - which we are not allowed to do - I could take down quotes in shorthand.
2) We cannot scroll back to check quotes. 20 years ago at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, we could do that.
3) If I were to screen-shot key quotes (to transcribe for a report) I would then miss the next five minutes. And given I can't hear the evidence, I can't say whether we would miss something important.
Read 9 tweets

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