Great Britain: Statue of slaves thrown away – Protesters freed

England
Abolition of the slave statue – the liberation of the protesters

Protesters throw a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol Harbor. Photo: Ben Birchhal / PA Wire / DPA

During the anti-apartheid protests in Bristol, England, in the summer of 2020, a statue of a slave trader was thrown into the harbor. Four offenders have now been released.

Following the fall of a slave statue in Bristol in 2020 as part of the struggle against racism, four people in charge have been acquitted in court.

Three men and a woman aged 22 to 33 have been acquitted of criminal property damage, Bristol Crown Court announced Wednesday after a two-week trial.

During the Black Lives Matter struggle on June 7, 2020, protesters overthrew the statue of Edward Colston (1636-1721), a slave trader, and threw it into a nearby harbor. Although several protesters were involved in the fall of the statue, only four came to court. In one video they showed the statue wrapped around a rope.

Defendants did not deny their role in the court proceedings, but did not find their actions criminal. Instead, they argued that the statue itself was a case of hate crime. Its lawyers allege that thousands of people have previously petitioned for the removal of the statue, which was erected in 1895 and urged the court to “stand on the right side of history.”

dpa

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