A COURT in Reading is preparing to try five peace campaigners for taking non-violent direct action, despite several recent cases in which peace activists have been acquitted after being arrested at similar protests.

This comes after the five Christian activists blocked the entrance to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Burghfield.

The campaigners, who are all in their thirties, are members of the group Put Down the Sword.

They were charged with “wilful obstruction of the highway” on June 27, 2016, but say they were acting on their religious convictions and following Jesus’ example of non-violence.

The group are set to be tried at Reading Magistrates’ Court on January 23, 25 and 26.

However, this is not the first case of its kind as another group of campaigners, who blocked a different entrance on the same day, have already been acquitted.

The judge found that the police had failed to follow their own basic procedures on the day in question.

Last April, activists who had blocked an entrance to the London arms fair were found not guilty when a judge found that they had acted reasonably to prevent greater crimes.

The defendants will be represented by Mike Schwarz of Bindmans LLP and Cecilia Goodwin of Sonn, Macmillan & Walker, who will tell the court that the activists were exercising religious liberty by acting on Christian principles of active nonviolence.

The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) has shown its support for the defendants and says that recent trials show that more and more people are prepared to take nonviolent direct action against preparations for war. Symon Hill, co-ordinator of the PPU, said: “The manufacture of weapons does not make us safer. It makes the world less safe for all of us, whatever country we live in. But it is not the ministers, the generals and the arms dealers facing trial. It is peaceful people who nonviolently interrupted their horrific activities.”