CONCERN OVER TREATMENT OF CELEBRITY CHEF THREAT SUSPECTS

The following newspaper article was lifted from thisiscornwall.co.uk and was published in the West Briton newspaper on the 7th February 2008. It refers to the Celtic League and the letter it wrote to Chief Constable Stephen Otter of Devon and Cornwall Police.

The League reported that it was happy the newspaper was taking the matter seriously enough to run an article on the issue, but that it was disappointed that there were several mistakes made. The most important of these errors was that the article suggests that the League said in their Otter letter that three of those people arrested in September 2007 were members of the Cornish Stannary Parliament, when no such mention or allusion of the kind was made at all.

This of course rightly sparked a reaction from the Cornish Stannary Parliament to the newspaper, which can be found by following the link CSP.

As a following post will reveal, the publicity that resulted from this article possibly had consequences for two of those people arrested.

Source: This is Cornwall
Published: West Briton newspaper 07/02/08

CONCERN OVER TREATMENT OF CELEBRITY CHEF THREAT SUSPECTS
09:00 - 06 February 2008

Police chiefs are facing serious questions over the arrests of three Cornish men in connection with alleged terror plots against chefs Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver.Four suspects were taken into custody last September following a series of dawn swoops on addresses in Camborne and Falmouth.

Now it has emerged in an official complaint to Stephen Otter, chief constable of Devon and Cornwall police, that three of them were members of the Cornish Stannary Parliament.

The complaint by the Celtic League expresses "our continuing alarm" over the treatment of the suspects.


It also alleges that a number of members have resigned from the Cornwall branch of the league "out of fear that their membership was somehow the cause of their arrest".

The protest comes after a group calling itself the Cornish National Liberation Army (CNLA) was said to have threatened to burn down one of Mr Stein's businesses in Padstow.

The group also allegedly declared the cars of his restaurant customers legitimate targets.

In an e-mail to a local newspaper last June, the shadowy extremists branded Mr Oliver an "incomer" and claimed he was hurting local people by driving up house prices and living costs.

Following the series of raids on September 6 last year, police confirmed the four men had been arrested on suspicion of the illegal possession of a firearm.

One suspect - 53-year-old Hugh Rowe, an engineer and senior member of the Cornish Stannary Parliament - later protested his innocence in an exclusive interview with the Cornish Guardian.

He said that officers seized dozens of possessions from his Camborne home, including three St Piran flags, Cornish language tapes and computer equipment.

"I'm quite openly involved in the Cornish movement but they have wrongly linked me with this scenario," insisted Mr Rowe.

The search warrant for his address - issued to a detective constable based at Launceston police station - revealed that police were looking for a rifle and ammunition.

It also gave officers the authority to search for any computer or similar equipment "capable of taking, storing or sending images and e-mails" as well as "face masks, clothing and other items" displayed in a photograph.

This picture, published in a national paper shortly after the alleged threats were made against Mr Stein and Mr Oliver, was said to feature hooded members of the CNLA organisation.

On January 16, one of the three Cornish Stannary Parliament suspects returned to Camborne police station to answer his police bail.

According to Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, director of information at the Celtic League, he was "interrogated" for around 10 hours.

Mr Tal-e-bot told Mr Otter in a letter: "Neither his family members nor supporters were told when or if he would be released. In February last year, I wrote to the Independent Police Complaints Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall Police, Ian Bynoe, to complain about a succession of arrests of another of our members, Member A, which seemed to border on harassment.

"Later, Member A decided not to pursue the matter further, being frustrated and upset with the whole business," he went on.

"The subsequent arrests of our other members since that time seem to confirm our initial concerns that Devon and Cornwall police are, for some reason, targeting our members in Kernow/Cornwall."

A police spokesman told the Cornish Guardian that none of the four suspects had been charged with any offence.

"They have all been bailed to March 26," she added.

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