(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

The global imperialist campaign to smear liberation movements with the "terrorist" label has taken another twist in the case of charges against Patrick Mac Manus, an Irish-born member of Denmark's "Rebellion" group. In Copenhagen City Court on March 15, Mac Manus was found guilty of "attempting to collect funds" for two so-called "terrorist organizations" - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) - and for "encouraging" others to do the same.

     Judge Helle Hastrup, however, rendered a mild sentence of six months probation as opposed to 18 months imprisonment asked for by the prosecutor. Court costs of 110,000 Danish kroner (about $20,000) plus 25% tax are to be shared by the defendant and the state. Hastrup could have demanded that all court costs be paid by the defendant.

     The ruling that FARC and PFLP are terrorist organizations was based exclusively on a previous decision by Denmark's Supreme Court. In a similar case, seven members of a group called Fighters & Lovers had sold t-shirts with FARC and PFLP logos, with the objective of sending part of the proceeds to media projects on their behalf. The Danish political police confiscated the funds and arrested the activists for "supporting terrorism."

     In 2007, Copenhagen City Court found them innocent because it determined that the liberation fighters in Colombia and Palestine were not terrorists. But in 2008, a higher court reversed this decision, and sentenced the activists to jail terms of two to six months. On March 25, 2009, the Supreme Court confirmed the judgment but found Denmark's terrorist law 114 to be "unclear" and reduced the sentence to probation.

     Although Rebellion has several spokespersons, the police only charged 65-year-old Mac Manus. The City Court found him to be the key person, although it admitted that the prosecution had not proven that any funds were actually transferred to "terrorist organizations". The judgment was based on a claim on Rebellion's website that it had collected and sent funds, and on emails on Mac Manus' computer confiscated by the police. Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen rested his case on Mac Manus' admission that he had donated $4 (20 kroner) at a Rebellion party in August 2004. The prosecutor also read excerpts from wiretapped phone conversations and from the confiscated emails, indicating that Mac Manus was a spokesperson and that he wrote press releases and articles favouring struggles for liberation in Israel and Colombia.

     Defense attorney Thorkild Hoeyer argued that the state had no hard evidence of crimes committed by Mac Manus; that the state had no evidence that FARC and PFLP are "terrorist organizations" as defined by international law; that any appeals to collect funds for said organizations were directed in favour of liberation from terror; and that the defendant acted and spoke in satire, challenging the anti-terror law to a public debate, a la Jonathan Swift.

     Judge Hastrup disregarded the argument of satire and held with the Supreme Court's 2009 ruling, regardless of terrorism or other international crimes Israeli and Colombia governments might commit, this is irrelevant to Danish anti-terror laws. If non-government liberation organizations commit acts which result in the death of civilians, then the groups are terrorists by definition of Danish laws from 2002. This places Denmark above United Nations conventions, which judge armed struggles in the context of actual conditions.

     Amidst a flurry of flapping union and WW2 resistance fighters' banners, and shouts from scores of supporters outside the court, Mac Manus responded to the court decision.

     "This won't stop me or us. We will continue to seek an end to these terror laws, to their terror wars. Our struggle is worth it regardless of court judgments. We act in the long history of solidarity, supporting those who fight for liberation and self-determination."

     (With files from Ron Ridenour, "Dissident Voice")