Dear friends,

You’ve probably heard the news by now – we have been found guilty by a jury of people who were clearly hesitant and divided about their decision.

The jury took five hours to deliberate on what was essentially a clear cut case for them, so obviously there was some debate amongst them . A barrister told me it should have taken half an hour.

Several were visibly distressed when the verdict was read and looked as though they had been crying.

Anyway, it was the verdict the judge had directed them to give and they did, not entirely an unexpected result for us.

We were complimented by the Commonwealth lawyer who said we did an excellent job representing ourselves. His opinion was that no barrister would have succeeded in getting our defences up, (had we been represented), but that our submissions were good and worth the effort. He said we got stories, facts, images into the courtroom about Pine Gap and the war in Iraq, that he thought not possible!

That was our goal, and we achieved it.

The media this afternoon are talking about Pine Gap’s connection to the war in Iraq.

We are four satisfied people – I haven’t seen Bryan so happy in a long time!

Crown Prosecutor Dembo told the judge that she should send us all to jail.

He said his instructions (from who??) were to seek a prison sentence for all of us because our actions were “striking at the heart of national security, of national interest.”

Mr Dembo said we had no hope of rehabilitation. We agreed.

He said we should go to jail to deter other ‘like-minded’ people – I guess he means you…

The judge responded saying most other protesters at Pine Gap got a small fine and to leap from that to a prison sentence would be unusual.

She also admitted that because no one had ever been charged under the Defence Special Undertakings Act before, she had no precedents to look at.

She wanted to think about it overnight, so we will be sentenced tomorrow morning at 11.30 (NT time), 12 noon ESt.

check the blog for more juicy details
www.pinegapontrial.blogspot.com

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200706/s1951528.htm

and media release below

thanks for all of your messages of support today!!

Tomorrow we will talk about whether to appeal.

more news at it comes to hand tomorrow!!
love Donna