David
Sumberg MEP
Date: 16/12/2003
SUMBERG BLASTS BELGIAN POLICE AFTER EURO PROTESTER ARRESTED
Conservative Euro MP David Sumberg has slammed Belgian police for arresting a father of two at gunpoint on anti-terrorism charges while he was protesting at Tony Blair's European policy.
Tom Quirk, 35, from Digmoor, Skelmersdale, who has vowed never to return to Belgium, was driving round the European Parliament in Brussels when he was detained before being deported and banned from mainland Europe.
He was displaying a billboard for pressure group Vote 2004 depicting Tony Blair - with the words "Nine out of 10 Britons want a vote on Europe" - going in one ear and out the other.
But Mr Sumberg said the police response was completely over the top.
"It is utterly absurd that people expressing a legitimate right of political expression at the home of the European Parliament should be prevented from campaigning on behalf of the British people. Tony Blair is determined to bamboozle the UK into the EU Constitution. We cannot and must not allow this to happen. That is exactly why demonstations such as this should be encouraged. Freedom of speech means something in Britain - I used to think it meant something in Belgium."
Speaking about his ordeal Mr Quirk told the Liverpool Daily Post: "I was sitting in the van - parked up reading a book - when a gun was pointed through the window. They asked for 'papers'. You don't argue when you have someone waving a gun in your face. I showed them my passport, insurance document for the vehicle and the phone number for Vote 2004.
"The police stood around the vehicle for about 20 minutes before two vans pulled up and 16 to 18 armed police surrounded me.
"I had to drive the van in a convoy, following one armoured vehicle in front and one behind.
"We drove through Belgium to a police station where they dumped me in the corner. I asked if I could make a phone call and they said 'no.' I was just left there for an hour."
Mr Quirk, who has daughters Emma, 15, and Stacey,13, says he was unable to telephone his wife Lisa until later.
He was taken with the other arrested men to a central Brussels police station.
Mr Quirk said: "We were held in a big interview room, surrounded by eight officers. One officer was very intimidating.
"He had a gun at his side. He kept getting it out, stroking it and then putting it away."
The men were initially held on anti-terrorism charges, but Mr Quirk says they were later changed to "actions likely to cause a breach of the peace."
Mr Sumberg urged opponents of the EU constitution to register their opposition to it online by signing the Conservative Party petition at http://www.conservatives.com/campaigns/referendum_petition.cfm