SPANISH government officials called the police on Scottish semi-professional agitator Sean Clerkin after he staged a pro-Catalonian protest that briefly invaded Spain’s consulate in Edinburgh.
On Wednesday the militant demonstrator, and comrades from the Scottish Resistance and Action for Scotland campaign groups, staged a brief “occupation” of the diplomatic office on North Castle Street of the capital.
In all, the occupation lasted around 10 minutes, with the campaigners unfurling a banner and making short speeches before walking away.
Police caught up with Clerkin and comrades immediately afterwards, but made no arrests at that point.
In an exchange caught on film, a PC said the Spaniards have accused the Resistance of “bursting” through the door to get into the building.
“We didn’t burst down the door, we opened the door and went in,” a puzzled Clerkin said.
But on Thursday night, 30-odd hours after that conversation, the notorious protester was arrested by Police Scotland and charged with a breach of the peace.
Clerkin is already fighting a breach of the peace charge though the courts following an incident last year at a Ruth Davidson photocall, where he sneaked in to the shoot at Hamilton Accies’ stadium, pretending to be a journalist.
Speaking to The National yesterday, Clerkin said he had been kept in cells for two hours: “The protest which I was involved in was a peaceful, non-violent protest supporting the rights of the Catalan people to self-determination and to vote for their own independence against the Spanish government which is behaving like a Francoist regime.”
A Police Scotland said: “A 56-year-old man has been charged following a disturbance during a demonstration at a premises on North Castle Street on Wednesday 27th September.
“A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.”
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