A bronze statue of Winston Churchill near the Houses of Parliament in London was vandalized with graffiti that read “Stop Genocide,” “Free Palestine,” “Not Now” and “Global Intifada.”
According to the BBC, a 38-year-old man named Caspar San Giorgio was arrested and charged with criminal damage after the incident on Friday. In court he pleaded not guilty and claimed his name was Olax Outis, before prosecutors told the court he had a different name on his passport.
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a report on The Art Newspaper Linking the vandalism to claims that it was carried out by the Dutch activist group Free the Filton 24 NL. “I defaced a monument commemorating a murderous bigot to draw attention to the horrific human rights violations taking place in a country ruled by colonizers who refused to listen to the people and wasted taxpayer dollars repressing people who, according to the United Nations, violated the Genocide Convention,” Orax Ortiz said in a verbal statement with a transcript posted on Instagram.
He continued: “The current British government should be dragged to the International Court of Justice in The Hague and as a representative of The Hague I am here to hold them to account.”
Responding to the painted message on the statue of Churchill, which was unveiled in 1973 by Clementine Churchill, the widow of the former prime minister, a Home Office spokesman said: “Sir Winston Churchill was a figure of great national pride. The despicable vandals who defaced this statue are a disgrace.”
as pointed out TanThe police arrested two British police officers for “suspected racially serious criminal damage”. Previously, two British police forces announced the arrest of people who shouted “global uprising” in December last year.
