They hammered on weapons - were sentenced to prison

Javier Garate at WRI <javier@wri-irg.org>

Press release the 5th of May 2010

They hammered on weapons – were sentenced to prison

Today the sentence for the two peace activists, Anna Andersson and Martin Smedjeback, was announced. The Svea court of appeal gave them four months in prison for the disarmament action in the city of Eskilstuna in October 2008, where they disarmed fourteen bazookas at Saab Bofors Dynamics weapons factory in Eskilstuna.

- This peace action is among the best things I have ever done in my life. A prison sentence does not bring me down considering the fact that our action might have saved lives, says Martin Smedjeback, nonviolence trainer from Mjölby, Sweden.

It was the 21st of April their case were brought up in the Svea court of appeal in Stockholm. It was announced today at 11 a.m. Swedish time.

- The Swedish weapons export has increased by more than 400 percent since 2001, in spite of the fact that a majority of the Swedish people, according to a recent published poll, wants to stop it. It is my responsibility as a fellow human being to act against this deadly trade which causes so much destruction in the world, says Anna Andersson, web designer from Göteborg.

Smedjeback was also sentenced to pay 7 800 Euros in criminal damage for climbing over a fence in November 2008 to the weapons factory Aimpoint in Malmö. The charges for criminal damages in connection to the disarmament action in the city of Eskilstuna will be processed in a coming civil law trial.

Contact persons:
Anna Andersson, kinaya@gmail.com, cell: +46-73-777 28 18
Martin Smedjeback, smedjeback@gmail.com, +46-70-257 90 97