BEELIAR LEGAL SUPPORT TEAM UPDATE - Please share Congrats to everyone involved in this hard won victory – we look forward to celebrating with you this weekend. We wanted to provide an update from the legal support team. As some of you might be aware there has been significant legal support for this campaign. A team of 27 lawyers have been working pro bono (free) coordinated by Kate Davis and Kate Thresher who have contributed an enormous amount of work for which we are all very grateful, and are representing most of the 176 people who were arrested. Most people have already appeared before court, apart from a number who were due to appear this fortnight, and those whose charges are being contested, or going to trial. Penalties varied with people seen earlier in the campaign receiving typically more lenient sentencing, than those seen later as magistrates attempted to deter future action. You can contribute to fines here: http://www.rethinkthelink.com.au/donate Many people received good behaviour bonds and those who received fines were mostly around $200-$300. The legal support team are currently coordinating a strategy for negotiations to drop charges NOT YET HEARD, and will be making contact directly with those who are yet to appear before court. We don’t believe there are legal remedies for repealing/revoking charges against people who have already faced court, and will be focusing our time on finalising current legal proceedings, as well as compiling a public report into police complaints to advocate changes in policy with a new ALP government to ensure police accountability for peaceful protests in future. Our team of legal observers provided consistent on ground human rights monitoring and have documented some of the cases of inappropriate use of force, dogs, horses and various other human rights violations and complaints. Please contact us on beeliarlegals@gmail.com * If you have a court date due to Roe 8 protests and don’t have legal representation yet * If you have already put in a complaint (and send us a copy if OK) * If you have a particularly distressing incident you would like to put in a complaint about * If you have any notes, statements or footage of violent incidents you haven’t shared with us * If you would like to volunteer to assist us with collating footage, complaints and have related legal, media or editing skills We will update the community as to next steps for police complaints and documentation Katrina, Nicola, Christine, Deryn, Kate D, Kate T, Lou & all of the legal observers Image may contain: one or more people, people standing, hat, text and outdoor