Story from BBC:

BNP leader cleared of race hate

BNP leader Nick Griffin and party activist Mark Collett have been cleared of inciting racial hatred after a retrial at Leeds Crown Court.
Mr Griffin, 46, from Powys, Wales, had denied two charges of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred in a speech in Keighley.
Mr Collett, 26, of Leicestershire, was cleared of four similar charges.
The pair were charged in April 2005 after the BBC showed a secretly-filmed documentary The Secret Agent in 2004.
Mr Griffin smiled and nodded as the foreman of the jury read out the unanimous not guilty verdict.
His wife Jackie burst into tears in the public gallery and there were cheers from BNP supporters, which were then muted by the judge.

They can take our taxes but they cannot take our hearts, they cannot take our tongues and they cannot take our freedom

BNP leader Nick Griffin
Outside court, Mr Griffin and Mr Collett were greeted with chants of "freedom" by about 200 supporters, some of whom waved the union flag.
A small number of anti-Nazi protesters shouted as Mr Griffin addressed the crowd.
He said: "What has just happened shows Tony Blair and the government and the BBC that they can take our taxes but they cannot take our hearts, they cannot take our tongues and they cannot take our freedom."
Mr Griffin said his co-defendant had worked "incredibly hard" for the BNP but had been living under the threat of a prison sentence since the age of 23.
BBC 'cockroaches'
Mr Collett, the party's head of the publicity, said: "This is the BNP - two, BBC - nil."
He branded the BBC "cockroaches" and added: "The BBC have abused their position.



Mr Griffin had described Islam as a "wicked, vicious faith"
"They are a politically correct, politically biased organisation which has wasted licence fee payers money to bring two people in a legal, democratic, peaceful party to court over speaking nothing more than the truth."
In a statement, the BBC said its job was to bring matters of public interest to general attention.
"In this case the matters raised in The Secret Agent were seen by a large section of the public and caused widespread concern," the statement read.
"The BBC has an important role in doing this.
"However, the question of whether criminal offences have been committed is of course a matter for the police, prosecuting authorities and the courts and not for the BBC."
Sufficient evidence
The Crown Prosecution Service said it was satisfied there had been sufficient evidence for a "realistic prospect of conviction" and it had been in the public interest to proceed.
During the trial, the jury heard extracts from a speech Mr Griffin made in the Reservoir Tavern in Keighley, on 19 January 2004, in which he described Islam as a "wicked, vicious faith" and said Muslims were turning Britain into a "multi-racial hell hole".
At the same event, Mr Collett addressed the audience by saying: "Let's show these ethnics the door in 2004."
In his closing argument, Nick Griffin's barrister said his client's words were part of a "campaign speech of an official and legitimate party".

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Just an indication and symptomof how the tide of anti-immigration racism is swelling.

Is it just me?...or does it not seem that the media is hyping up a frenzy in order tocourt anti-immigration/ Anti-Black & Asian sentiment.

Basically, the sentiment is palpable and becoming less subtle every day...

What do you think of this decision?

Not surprised at all.

I was listening to Vanessa Feltz this morning where the topics wereJon Snow not wearing a poppy and some other topic I can't remember. Anyway, a man called and asked Vanessa why she wasn't covering the story of the Asians convicted of killing the White youth in Scotland. Vanessa said because it wasn't relevant to London. Anyway, I went into my meeting, and when I listened later Vanessa had added this to the topic list.

Seems the natives are revolting (pun not intended)

The system obviously requires him. They're currently jailing innocent Muslim 'Terror Suspects' by the truck load and allowing the likes of this scum towalk free.

Great Britain has spoken.

Meh,didn't his first trial take place at the same timeof another Muslim inciting violence andhatredhate speech thingy.

Thetiming of these stories (cases, events and outcomes) are getting alittle bit silly now..

I know I'm going to sound like I've done lost my mind but I actually agree with the verdict. They should never have been taken to court to waste tax payers money in the first place aslets be honest they were never going to be sent down forwhat they said. Its one thing to say 'i hate Muslims' and another thing to say 'I will kill enemys of Islam'. One is incitement to murder, one is not. All this case did was give publicity to the BNP and if they had been sent down they would have been made martyrs of. All the racists would have come out of the woodwork talking about how white people can't have freedom of speech in their own country etc. To be honest I don't even know why the BBC were trying to discover with their undercover filming, its not a surprise that the BNP dislike ethnics in fact I thought what they said on the tape was quite mild compared to what I imagined what they'd say. What was said was no worse than many other English have said of that I'm certain,

@ babygirl44 clp)

I agree with you @ babygirl, but then I looked at the cartoon protestor who calledfor the murder of British troops and got charged with inciting racial hatred. British is a 'race' now??

They both should have been cleared

babygirl44 wrote:
Did you see the whole documentary?

as for mark collett

'lets show these ethnics the door in 2004' sounds eerily like incitement

I'm struggling here, how comes this is Guilty, when the argument over 'intent' could also equally apply and Mr Collett and Mr Griffin's isn't 'race hate'.. could the vital factor be the 'all white' jury?

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Man guilty of inciting race hate at protest

Vikram Dodd
Friday November 10, 2006
The Guardian


A man was yesterday convicted of inciting racial hatred after calling for the killing of British troops during a protest against cartoons held to be offensive to Islam. At a February rally outside the Danish embassy in London, Mizanur Rahman, 23, had said soldiers should be brought back from Iraq in body bags, and also called for September 11-style terrorist attacks against Europe.


A jury at the Old Bailey found him guilty of using threatening, abusive or insulting words, or behaviour with intent to stir racial hatred. Jurors were deadlocked on a second charge of inciting murder. The crown indicated it would seek a retrial.


Along with Rahman, a website designer from Palmers Green in north London, 300 people protested over a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, published in a Danish newspaper and reprinted in European papers.

His counsel, John Burton, told the jury it was not enough to be "offended, shocked and distressed" by what Rahman said: "It is a matter of whether a serious crime has taken place."

He compared Rahman's remarks to those made from soapboxes at Speaker's Corner. During the short trial Rahman apparently apologised, saying: "I didn't think about what I was saying."


Labour MP Shahid Malik, who had called on police to act after the protest, said outside court following the verdict that "a free society ... does not give people the freedom to stir up racial hatred".


Opening the prosecution case, David Perry QC said Rahman had carried placards saying: "Annihilate those who insult Islam" and "Behead those who insult Islam." Mr Perry told the jury the meaning was "clear and unambiguous".

Retrial begins of BNP leaders accused of stirring racial hatred

· Pair caught on BBC film attacking Islam, court told
· Modern Britain 'described as multiracial hell'

Martin Wainwright
Saturday November 4, 2006
The Guardian


Two British National Party leaders stoked up racial hatred in an area of troubled community relations with speeches against Islam, ethnic minorities and asylum seekers, a court heard yesterday.


Islam was derided by the far-right party's chairman, Nick Griffin, as "a wicked, vicious faith" while one of his deputies, Mark Collett, called asylum seekers "cockroaches" and urged cheering supporters to "show ethnics the door in 2004". Both told closed party meetings they would face trouble from the media or the law if they denounced the Qur'an publicly or an alleged plan to destroy the white community. But they did not know that a BBC journalist, Jason Gwynne, who was posing as a BNP enthusiast, was covertly filming the speeches at a pub in Keighley, West Yorkshire.


Mr Griffin, 47, of Llanerfyl, Powys and Mr Collett, 25, of Rothley, Leicestershire deny charges of using words or behaviour intended or likely to stir up racial hatred. Mr Griffin faces one count and Mr Collett four with the maximum penalty of seven years on conviction.


A small group of BNP supporters stood under flags and placards outside Leeds crown court but there were none of the scuffles that took place during a bigger demonstration and counter-protest when the jury was sworn in this week.
Rodney Jameson QC, prosecuting in a retrial after a previous jury failed to agree on the charges, quoted extracts from the speeches which were shown to the jury.


Mr Griffin urged activists at the Reservoir Tavern in January 2004 to work at the local and European elections to persuade local voters of "the evil these people have done to our country". Denouncing modern Britain as a "multi-racial hell," he made repeated allegations about paedophile drug rapes in Keighley and linked them to Islamic teachings.


He said: "This wicked, vicious faith has expanded from a handful of cranky lunatics about 1,300 years ago and it's now sweeping country after country before it, all over the world. And if you read that book (the Qur'an), you'll find that that's what they want. If you doubt it, go and buy a copy and you will find verse after verse and you can take any woman you want as long as it's not Muslim women."


The court also heard Mr Collett's speech, made to the same meeting, which Mr Jameson described as "little more than a crude racist rant".


The Leeds University graduate, who was heckled earlier in the week by local students outside the court, repeated Mr Griffin's clams about attacks in Keighley.
He was recorded by the BBC's hidden camera saying: "When these Asians go out looking for a victim, they don't go looking for Asian victims. They don't go mugging Asian grandmas, they don't go stabbing each other, they don't go trying to solicit sex off little Pritesh or little Sanjita.


"They go straight to the whites because they are trying to destroy us and they are the racists. If you want these people out and to stop asylum seekers coming in, then vote for the BNP."


In a second speech two months later at the Crossroads pub in Keighley, Mr Collett turned on asylum seekers. Again recorded by Mr Gwynne, for a BBC2 programme called Secret Agent, he said: "I honestly don't hate asylum seekers - these people are cockroaches and they're doing what cockroaches do because cockroaches can't help what they do, they just do it, like cats miaow and dogs bark. The people I hate are the white politicians who have sold us down the line."


Mr Jameson said there were occasions when the line between "robust and legitimate debate" and