UK Court Declines to Punish Man Who Defaced Churchill Statue with Palestinian Messages

A British court this week set free a man who vandalized a statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.

Caspar San Giorgi, 39, was acquitted at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, according to the BBC.

San Giorgi vandalized the statue on Feb. 27.

He was accused of causing more than £7,000 of damage after spray-painting the statue with phrases such as “Stop the Genocide” and “Free Palestine.”

He called Churchill a “Zionist war criminal.”

In his trial, he said he was sending Parliament a message.

He also claimed to have used washable paint on the statue.

San Giorgi was spotted around 4 a.m. that day, carrying cans of spray paint and a ladder to climb the plinth, according to news reports.

The act was filmed and widely shared on social media.

During the vandalism, he wore an outfit that said “I support Palestine Action.”

He then “set about defacing the statue – spraying… the words ‘Free Palestine’ and red triangles on the front, and ‘Never Again Is Now’ on the rear,”  prosecutor Peter Ratliff said.

“Whether you convict me or not is not too much of a concern for me,” San Giorgi said during his trial.

“Whether I get acquitted, deported, imprisoned for years, I can be proud of having spoken about injustice and I have accounted for my actions,” he said.

He also said he believed his actions could not be criminal as he was “preventing a crime” with his protest.

According to GB News, the action was condemned by the Office of the Prime Minister.

A representative called the vandalism  “completely abhorrent.”

“Churchill was a great Briton,” the representative said.

“This Government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account,” the representative said.

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