Breaking News From Freedom’s Front Line
From JailingOpinions.com
Two British citizens, Simon Sheppard and Steve Whittle, have sought political asylum in the United States after being convicted under Britain’s notoriously repressive race laws. Their case made legal history because they were convicted in connection with a website which is based in the United States, where its contents are legal.
The website concerned publishes articles satirising many aspects of modern liberal politics. Readers may disagree with much of the site’s content, but the criminalisation of Messrs Sheppard and Whittle is an especially worrying extension of the continent-wide attack on European freedom.
Until recently it had been thought that authors and publishers had some degree of legal protection if their work appeared on websites hosted on U.S. servers. The Sheppard and Whittle case shows that British courts are now claiming that their jurisdiction extends across the Atlantic.
The U.K. currently has no law specifically prohibiting Holocaust revisionism, but the Sheppard and Whittle case implies that the existing laws against “racial hatred” will be reinterpreted to criminalise some forms of revisionism.
Simon Sheppard and Steve Whittle have chosen to publicise this attack on freedom by flying to California and claiming political asylum. This bold course of action has seriously embarrassed the British authorities, and puts the spotlight on the contrast between the First Amendment protections enjoyed by Americans and the increasingly severe crackdown on political dissent across Europe.
These embattled Britons need your help to pay the inevitable legal bills engendered by their brave stand. An appeal has been organised by Mr Paul Ballard, a well known British political activist.
Paul is a man of great personal integrity, and a friend of Simon’s, so well qualified to take on this task.
Not a penny of this money will go to the Heretical Two’s English solicitors or counsel, who are being paid out of the legal aid fund, and are neither permitted nor willing to accept a penny piece from well wishers.
The Jailing Opinions website has no financial connection with this appeal nor with any aspect of the case, but is happy to advertise the appeal address for those who wish to contribute.
Cheques should be made out to ‘The Croydon Preservation Society’ and posted to P.O. Box 301, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 4QW.
Alternatively donations can be wired to the following account via Paypal, Western Union etc.:
Croydon Preservation Society, Lloyds TSB Bank plc, 49 / 53 High Street, Sutton, Surrey SM1 1DT
sort code 77-30-03
account no. 86187860
Donations can also be paid in to this account at any branch of Lloyds TSB.
[You can send Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle letters of support care of the Santa Anna Jail P.O. Box 22003 Santa Anna, CA. 92701] (more…)