The G8 Legal Support Group has released an initial statement on the policing of the G8 protests in Scotland in early July and it makes grim reading. The group claims that during the protests, police detained or arrested more than 700 people, of which some 366 people were charged with one or more offences. The statement goes on to criticise the "draconian bail conditions" imposed by Scottish courts on protesters, which not only barred their further involvement in any demonstrations but also "forced those not resident in Scotland to leave at an impossible speed, making the conditions impossible to comply with. As a direct result of this tactic, some people were rearrested for breach of bail." The most alarming aspect of the Legal Support's Group report is its assertion that those people unable to give a UK address "have been remanded in prison, even though in all the cases we are aware of, none faces serious enough charges to result in a prison sentence even if convicted." See the G8 Legal Support website for the full statement.
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