Carmen Escobar Robinson, 41, and Alexandra Elizabeth Walker, 34 fined for 2023 Pine Gap protest
A judge has quashed the legal argument of two Pine Gap protesters, whose lawyer says they were blocking the road to the top secret spy base to stop ‘what’s happening in Israel’. Find out more.
A base blockade at Pine Gap in 2023 was trying to stop the “genocide” occurring against the Palestinian people, a court has heard during a three day hearing, which ended with two protesters fined by a judge.
The claim was made by the lawyer for Carmen Escobar Robinson, 41, and Alexandra Elizabeth Walker, 34, who on November 27, 2023, affixed themselves to a 40 gallon drum filled with concrete on Hatt Rd.
Hatt Rd leads to the Pine Gap Joint Defence Facility – a spy base run in tandem by the United States and Australian governments south of Alice Springs – with the pair alleging the base is assisting Israel target Palestinian civilians in the ongoing conflict.
Following the action in 2023, the duo have been before the courts for close to two years now, with their matter finally concluding before Judge John McBride on September 25.
The pair were initially charged with obstructing the use of a public road, causing a traffic hazard or obstruction, and failing to cease to loiter.
But Judge McBride found them guilty of failing to cease to loiter, after the obstructing a public road and creating a traffic hazard charges were dropped in December last year.
Lawyer John Lawrence represented the pair, who told the court the duo sought to “prevent” the “horror story” unfolding on the Gaza Strip.
“They told you (Judge McBride) why they did it, which was in order to try and prevent the continued killing of innocent civilians, men, women and children and their facilities, education, institutions, hospitals, mosques, housing, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide – we know that’s what’s happening in Israel today, we really do,” he said.
The court heard when the duo affixed themselves to the drum, they were attempting to prevent Pine Gap employees from heading to work for the day.
During the latest three day hearing, the court heard from acting superintendent Deanne Wood, who gave evidence close to 100 people were unable to use the road on the morning the pair affixed themselves to the drum.
Prosecutor Machiko Raheem, in her closing statement, said the pair were affixed to the drum for six hours.
She made no mention of the pair’s motive in her closing statement, instead noting Judge McBride only had to find beyond a reasonable doubt the pair were loitering.
International Relations Professor Richard Tanter also gave evidence, telling the court how the base uses four Orion satellites to gather information on conflicts in the Middle East.
However, Judge McBride excluded Mr Tanter’s evidence prior to handing down his sentencing.
In preventing the Pine Gap employees from going to work, the pair were preventing the commission of another crime – “genocide,” Mr Lawrence said – through a use of force which justified their actions, Mr Lawrence argued for his clients.
Judge McBride determined the duo’s action was “deliberate and intended” with an aim they action could have potentially prevented “actions taken in Gaza which constituted an offence of genocide”
“The difficulty I have with this is found in the dearth of specificity in how this goal could ever be achieved from the actions taken,” Judge McBride said.
He determined there was no evidence to “substantiate a positive finding” relating to “an application of force”.
Judge McBride concluded the “conduct of both defendants, deliberate as it was, cannot be accepted by this court as reasonable in justifying their intended commission of a criminal offence”.
Both were fined $150 each for failing to cease to loiter, each spared a conviction, and given a six month good behaviour bond.
