11.05.2010
By Gabriel O’Hara
Wise Up Journal

The following reminiscence was written from my notes of last year’s trial against John Anthony Hill, the DVD mailer, which I attended. It shows the reality of court, which is nothing like the logical Hollywood or TV fiction courtroom dramas the public are given to watch.

To sum up quickly what John did: He posted a DVD documentary to a UK court. A documentary that was already widely available in the public domain on youtube and google videos. Almost the entire documentary is from the BBC, ITV, New York Times and other mainstream news. The UK trial involved four Muslim men who were accused of terrorism (who were found innocent after John’s trial). The documentary mentions four other men and not the men on trial in the Britain. The British government obtained a European Arrest warrant for John’s extradition to the UK to face a new trial and face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. John originally helped produce the documentary that shows British government officials making major and embarrassing contradictions.

I never expected it to be anything like how it was. At times it was similar to being in a court with Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver describing his travels. At the first moment of the trial I saw that the defending barrister had his black robe hanging down around his elbows that was perfectly upright before the start. I had a strong urge to pull it back up like helping a disorderly four-year-old child with his coat. It remained dangling around his elbows for the entire hearing, for over one hour.

Every time the defending barrister stood up he was hunched over and limp. When it was the prosecuting barrister’s round to argue he stood up straight, firm and confident but I could not believe he actually said the things he did. One of his arguments brought up the fact that John used a pen name in his documentary and he cynically added that everyone has freedom of expression… but why was it done anonymously? Aha! I did not know whether he was trying to prosecute John or the literary establishment, George Orwell aka Eric Blair, and most journalists who use a pen name. This imaginary dark cloud that now hung over John was not challenged by the Judge or by the defence. It was not difficult to sense we were no longer in the realm of critical thinking. From my memories of wasting time with online forums I thought these guys would not last four minutes before they were laughed out of any online forum with their cloaks between their legs. However, I thought, they do not seem like the type that embarrass easily; after all they do wear dresses and wigs.