Legal Ramifications
The legal repercussions of the hobby were dramatically shown in November 2001 when fourteen aircraft spotters (twelve British, two Dutch) were arrested by Greek police after being observed at an open day at the Greek Air Force base at Kalamata. They were charged with espionage, and faced a possible 20-year prison sentence if found guilty. After being held for six weeks, they were eventually released on £9,000 bail, and the charges reduced to the misdemeanour charge of illegal information collection. Confident of their innocence they returned for their trial in April 2002 and were stunned to be found guilty, with eight of the group sentenced to three years, the rest for one year. At their appeal a year later all were acquitted .
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Famous quotes containing the word legal:
“Lawyers are necessary in a community. Some of you ... take a different view; but as I am a member of that legal profession, or was at one time, and have only lost standing in it to become a politician, I still retain the pride of the profession. And I still insist that it is the law and the lawyer that make popular government under a written constitution and written statutes possible.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)