* UPDATE * SCPO HEARING FOR ANARCHIST PRISONER TOBY SHONE HAS BEEN ADJOURNED UNTIL 6 MAY.
Even though the cops couldn’t prove their terrorism case against him after a four year investigation, anarchist prisoner Toby Shone is facing a Serious Crime Prevention Order that will legally sanction the criminalisation and total surveillance of him and everyone around him for years to come after his release.
In November 2020, a series of co-ordinated raids against one of the alleged administrators of the website 325.nostate.net was executed by counter-terrorism cops in the UK as part of “Operation Adream”. Several properties in the southwest of England were searched and one person, Toby Shone, was arrested at gunpoint in the Forest of Dean and charged under the Terrorism Act. This was the first time the British State attempted to prosecute an anarchist under modern terrorism legislation and the first time that somebody was prosecuted for being suspected of running an anarchist website.
Toby was originally charged with providing a service enabling others to access terrorist publications, with fundraising for terrorist purposes, and with two counts of possession of information likely to be useful to a terrorist. He pleaded not guilty, the cops weren’t able to produce any evidence, and the prosecution was forced to drop these charges on October 1st 2021.
In the end, Toby Shone was sentenced to 3 years 9 months in prison for 8 drug offenses on October 13, 2021. The ‘drugs’ were psychedelics and medicinal plants found at two of the four properties raided in November 2020, all collective spaces. He served 8 months of this sentence on remand at HMP Wandsworth and is currently held in HMP Bristol. He is due for release sometime between August and December 2022. Continue reading “UK: About the total surveillance order facing anarchist comrade Toby Shone EN/DE/ES/FR/IT/PL *UPDATED*”