PENSIONER protesters Brian Quail and Angie Zelter have been freed from jail after courts dropped demands forbidding them from going anywhere near Scotland’s nuclear submarines.
And 79-year-old Quail has thanked readers of The National for the hundreds of letters and cards he received during his two weeks in Low Moss.
He and 66-year-old Zelter were arrested on July 10 for their part in a blockade of the nuclear warhead store at Coulport on Loch Long as part of the Trident Ploughshares campaign.
The veteran campaigners and three others were offered bail at Dumbarton Justice of the Peace Court last Wednesday, but only if they agreed to not go “within 100m of the perimeter fence or shoreline of HMS Naval Base Clyde, Faslane”.
Quail, and Zelter refused to accept those conditions and were held in remand, due to appear in court on August 3.
But yesterday at an intermediary hearing, police asked for the trial to be put back, saying their witnesses wouldn’t be able to attend until October.
The two elderly campaigners were all set to spend even more time in prison, insisting that even in the face of two more months of jail time they wouldn’t accept the bail conditions banning them from protesting outside Faslane.
However, the Justice of the Peace dropped that special condition, giving the pair ordinary bail conditions.
The two celebrated their freedom by heading straight to Faslane where they made a “rude gesture”.
Speaking to The National afterwards, Quail said he was glad to be out of jail.
“It’s no a fun place,” the retired Latin teacher said.
“I’m very grateful for the support I received from The National and from the many people who took the time and trouble to send a card and letter. I’ve got a huge bundle herel About 130 of the things. I’ve still to reply to them all.
“I’m on my way home, I’m delighted.”
When the 79-year-old was asked if it was maybe time to hang up his placard and retire from the protesting lark, he replied: “No way. I ain’t started yet.”
He added “I hope no-one is under the delusion that we are in any way inhibited or curbed by this experience. We’re more than determined than ever.”
Quail’s MP, Patrick Grady, who sent the two protesters the “solidarity” of the SNP group said he was relieved his constituent was out of jail.
‘’I am delighted that Angie and Brian have been released – but it will seem totally unacceptable to so many that they were in jail in the first place.
‘’They stood up for what they believe in: that we want nothing to do with these monstrous weapons dumped in Scotland. Trident should go – once and for all.’’ Comic book legend Mark Millar, a former pupil of Quail’s, yesterday tweeted that he was “delighted” the two had been released.
In a statement released by the Trident Ploughshares campaign Angie Zelter said: “Right since Trident Ploughshares was launched in 1998 members of Trident Ploughshares have stood up in court and argued that Trident is illegal because it is an inherently indiscriminate weapon, the use of which would inevitably cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands if not millions of civilians.
“At times the courts have listened to those arguments. At other times they have not.”
Zelter and Quail were arrested along with Sam Donaldson, 29, from Hull, Almudena Izquierdo Olmo, 60, from Madrid, and Juan Carlos Navarro Diaz, 46, a university librarian from the Canary Islands.
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