About 40 members of the Anti-War Coalition in Derry staged a protest outside the city's Magistrates' Court yesterday before and after nine local men appeared in the court jointly charged with aggravated burglary.
The charges are related to last month's 12-hour occupation of the US-owned Raytheon plant in the Ulster Science and Technology Park during which an estimated £350,000 worth of damage was caused to the premises.
Before they entered the court building, one of the defendants, journalist Eamon McCann, told the protesters that he and his co-accused had "a legal right and a political and moral duty to do what we did".
"We will not face the court as the accused but as the accusers. We shall endeavour to expose the illegal and immoral record of arms companies like Raytheon in fuelling the war in the Middle East for the sake of profit," he said.
Thirty police officers, some of whom photographed and videoed the protest, were on duty inside and outside the court building for the remand hearing. Resident Magistrate Barney McElholm remanded the defendants on continuing bail to appear before the same court on October 12th.
As part of their bail conditions, the defendants must report once a week to the police, not interfere with any witnesses and observe a half-mile exclusion zone around the Raytheon plant.
The defendants are Mr McCann (63), Westland Avenue; Seán Heaton (34), Circular Road; Michael Gallagher (27), Beechwood Avenue; Éamon O'Donnell, Campion Court; Colm Bryce (40), Westland Avenue; Patrick McDaid (36), Marlborough St; Kieran Gallagher (40), the Craft Village; Gary Donnelly (35), Kildrum Gardens; and James Kelly (45), Kular Court.