Greenpeace activists testify on hospital incinerator protest

A Greenpeace activist yesterday told a court that the decision to hang a banner, reading "Stop", on the chimney of St Luke`s Hospital was taken in an attempt to voice concern and notify the public about the hazards of the hospital`s incinerator.

"Ours was a peaceful, direct action against the hospital`s incinerator which is a hazard to the environment and to people`s health. We resorted to the action after discussions with the government yielded no results," Greenpeace communication director Caroline Muscat said.

Muscat testified before Magistrate Saviour Demicoli in the compilation of evidence against herself and Greenpeace activists Jeffrey Camilleri, Berthrand Magro and Turkish Zija Cobanoglu. The latter is not present for the court proceedings.

They are pleading not guilty to trespassing into St Luke`s Hospital`s restricted zones, causing less than Lm10 damage to the hospital and disobeying police orders on July 13, 2001 at about 9.30 a.m.

Muscat testified after the prosecution declared it had no more evidence to present.

She explained that "peaceful, direct action" was a concept often used by Greenpeace internationally.

"The government had started the process of changing the incinerator, for a safer and more modern one, in 1995. It made a public declaration three years ago in which it announced it intended changing the incinerator to one having the latest technology.

"The government had promised a change three years ago but nothing was ever done. We felt we should notify the public about the hazard," she said.

Muscat explained that before taking action the activists informed the media in order to attract the necessary attention.

"When you have no one left to turn to, there is a concept that involves going beyond the limit to be heard. We applied that concept. We did everything at our own risk and did not endanger anyone else. We never had criminal intentions," she added.

Earlier, Camilleri said that his aim was to hang a banner, with the word "Stop" and signed by Greenpeace, onto the chimney at St Luke`s Hospital.

He explained how four activists walked onto the hospital grounds at 6 a.m. and headed towards the chimney without being stopped or questioned by anyone. They pushed open a door but a second door behind it was padlocked and Cobanoglu broke the lock.

When they walked into the chimney building they had to wear gas masks "because the air was unbearable in there". The four of them then climbed up a metal ladder, opened a hatch in the ceiling and got onto the roof.

Once there, Camilleri and Cobanoglu wore their abseiling gear and secured their ropes onto already existing points on the chimney. They abseiled the chimney and unfurled the banner.

They remained suspended, 15 metres above the ground, for about an hour-and-a-half to keep the banner in place with their bodies.

Camilleri explained that when he climbed towards the roof to arrange the banner he saw a police officer who told him to keep going up. The officer then attached himself to the chimney and abseiled to reach Cobanoglu and the two climbed down together.

Camilleri walked out of the chimney building with another officer.

Magro testified that while he was on the roof looking down towards Camilleri and Cobanoglu, who were hanging to the chimney, he heard Muscat scream from behind him.

She was standing on the hatch and he went next to her to see what was wrong. He suddenly felt the hatch lift upwards and saw the head of a police officer. He pulled Muscat off the hatch and they opened it and let the officer through.

Both Magro and Muscat denied jumping on the hatch to stop the officer from getting on the roof.

The officer, they said, was followed by another two officers who eventually ordered them to get out of the building and they obeyed.

Resources and Infrastructure Minister Francis Zammit Dimech, who was then the minister responsible for environment, explained that the monitoring of the incinerator fell under the Ministry of Health`s responsibility.

He said that before the incident happened the ministry had several meetings with Greenpeace in which the issue of the hospital incinerator, among others things, was discussed.

During the meetings the government never agreed with Greenpeace`s mentality that all incinerators were hazardous but they agreed that the incinerator had to be changed to a more modern one.

The government had even made a call for tenders for the incinerator`s replacement and the tendering procedure was still in progress.

The case continues.

Inspector Carlo Ellul is prosecuting.

Dr Paul Farrugia and Dr Matthew Brincat are appearing for the defendants.