Campaigner could be jailed for protest

A Grimsby-born campaigner will find out next month if he faces jail after storming the Northern Territory's parliament in Australia.

Gary Meyerhoff (29), who holds joint British and Australian citizenship, burst into Parliament House, Darwin, on May 14, 2002 when the newly-elected Labor Party's fresh drug laws were being debated. Meyerhoff and eight others from the lobby group Network Against Prohibition (NAP) objected to the plans, now law, allowing police to place a warning sign outside a user's home.

He was sentenced to 21 months inside, of which he would serve five, but is out on bail having appealed against the conviction.

Speaking to the Telegraph from Darwin, the former Enfield Primary School pupil said he was due back in court on June 15, 16 and 17.

He said: "If we lose the appeal, we will contest the sentence. We will be in jail within three months if we are unsuccessful."

However, Meyerhoff, who lived in Marshchapel and New Waltham, before moving to Australia aged nine with his parents, told the Telegraph he had no regrets.

He said: "We felt it was our duty to highlight to the Northern Territory's Government the major mistake it was about to make.

"Drug users are stigmatised on a daily basis and the "drug house" laws further add to that stigmatisation."

He added: "The drugs policies here are not working. They are throwing heaps of people in jail, but not addressing real problems."

Meyerhoff last visited the Grimsby area in 2001 and said he had "loads of friends" in North East Lincolnshire.

Becky Lidgard (62), of Cleethorpes, Meyerhoff's aunt, said he had done a lot to help Australia's indigenous people, who the NAP claim are being unfairly targeted by police under the new laws.

She said: "He's done a lot of hard work with drug users, AIDS sufferers, Aboriginees and in schools."

Meyerhoff's parents were Grimbarians Rosemary and Bill Meyerhoff.

Mrs Meyerhoff has since passed away.

Meyerhoff pleaded not guilty to disrupting parliament in session in March 2003, claiming what was being debated was unlawful and that his entry was covered by the Australian constitution's implied right to freedom of speech.

No-one from the department of the Northern Territory's chief minister was available for comment.

THE action taken by Gary Meyerhoff and his colleagues may be seen by some as extreme, but it is by no means infrequent.

Over the years numerous protests have been waged in the world's elected parliaments and assemblies.

Just last week, Ron Davis (48) and Guy Harrison (36) allegedly threw condoms packed with purple flour at Tony Blair to protest at the limited rights of fathers following divorce proceedings.

They are due to appear before magistrates this week.

In February 1988 gay rights protesters abseiled into the House of Lords to take a stand against section 28, a clause of the Local Government Act that later became law banning councils from promoting homosexuality.

In eastern Europe, Macedonian president Boris Traikovski appealed for calm after protesters forced him to flee when they broke in on June 25, 2001, claiming he was too soft on Albanian fighters.

Last November in Georgia, opposition supporters claiming electoral fraud stormed in when president, Eduard Shevardnadze, tried to convene parliament.

He later resigned and Mikhail Saakashvili took over.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: 24th May 2004
Source: Grimsby Evening Telegraph
Author: Lisa Parry
Website: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/