Piers Corbyn facing fresh criminal charge over alleged coronavirus lockdown breach at protest

Jeremy Corbyn’s brother has been charged with another alleged coronavirus rule breach over a Leicester Square rally at the start of the second national lockdown.

Piers Corbyn, 73, is accused of flouting government rules by gathering with more than two people on November 5, the day England was put back into lockdown.

The climate change denier is also accused of encouraging others to break the law by allegedly sending a Tweet plugging the anti-lockdown protest.

Corbyn, who challenges the legitimacy of the government’s rules, is already locked in multiple legal battles over his arrests at demonstrations over the last nine months.

He is due to stand trial tomorrow over claims he broke the first lockdown with two protests in Hyde Park on May 16 and May 30, at a time when the law banned large gatherings of people.

Corbyn, who denies the charges, believes he has been “specifically targeted” by police and will rely on a lack of arrests at Black Lives Matters marches to fight his defence.

He was quietly prosecuted and fined by Westminster magistrates for a protest outside a St Thomas’ Hospital in Lambeth on May 9, and was arrested two weeks ago in Bristol during another demo.

Nick Stanage, from human rights specialists Doughty Street Chambers, announced last month that he is representing Corbyn in two legal claims relating to his interactions with police.

He is suing South Yorkshire Police over claims of unlawful arrest, assault, and false imprisonment stemming from a September anti-lockdown protest in Sheffield.

Corbyn is also bringing legal action against the Metropolitan Police, claiming he was arrested and falsely imprisoned for ten hours before being handed a £10,000 fine over a London protest at the end of August.

The latest charges against Corbyn are listed for a case management hearing tomorrow afternoon, alongside his pending trial.

He is accused under the 2007 Serious Crime Act of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of a summary offence by allegedly “publishing a tweet advertising a gathering…in a public outdoor place of more than two people”.

Over the protest itself, Corbyn has been charged with “participating in a gathering of two or more people in other public outdoor place in Tier 3 area”.

London was in Tier 2 until November 5 when the national lockdown was imposed, and to add confusion to the case Corbyn has been charged under both the laws in place before and after the lockdown was imposed.

According to court documents, his case has been listed for hearings three times already.

Read More

14 arrests at anti-lockdown rally attended by Piers Corbyn

Piers Corbyn charged with another lockdown breach over hospital demo

Piers Corbyn arrested and handed £10k fine over anti-lockdown protests