LAWS used to convict 15 protesters who prevented a deportation flight are intended for perpetrators of violence of the “utmost seriousness” – not demonstrators, the Court of Appeal heard today.

The so-called Stansted 15 cut through the Essex airport’s perimeter fence and locked themselves together around a Boeing 767 jet, chartered by the Home Office to transport people from UK detention centres for repatriation to Africa.

They were later convicted at Chelmsford Crown Court of an offence related to the March 2017 incident – three were given suspended jail sentences and the other 12 were handed community orders.

The group were granted permission to appeal against their convictions in August last year.

At a hearing in London today, lawyers for the activists argued that the legislation used to convict the 15 is rarely used and not intended for this type of case.

The protesters, who all pleaded not guilty, were convicted under the Aviation and Maritime Security Act (Amsa) 1990 and sentenced in February 2019.

In documents before the court, the Stansted 15’s barristers argued that the Act is not concerned with risks, posed by those who trespass at an airport, of “a health-and-safety-type nature.” 

Rather, they argue, it is concerned with “unlawful violence of the utmost seriousness” including the use of offensive devices, substances or weapons.

The Stansted 15’s barristers say Amsa was brought in to enact in domestic law an international convention, known as the Montreal Protocol, on dealing with acts of violence at airports.

Their documents say records of the negotiations leading to the Montreal Protocol “explicitly state that the new offences proposed were not intended to cover the conduct of strikes or gatherings of demonstrators but only unlawful, violent, terrorist acts justifying international criminalisation and universal jurisdiction.”

Clare Montgomery QC, lead counsel for the protesters, said that the Amsa legislation is an international statute aimed at serious crimes which can carry a sentence of life imprisonment.

She said that the way the law had been used could have a “chilling effect” on legitimate protest.

As of March last year, 11 of the deportees on the flight grounded by the Stansted 15’s actions were still in the UK, with two confirmed as victims of modern day slavery and a third granted asylum on human rights grounds, according to court papers.

The hearing is due to last three days and the three judges are expected to give their ruling at a later date.