Environment: Editors jailed for urging violence

Three editors of an anarchist newspaper were branded as "terrorists" by a judge yesterday and jailed for three years for publishing stories which were deemed to incite readers to commit crimes.

Saxon Burchnall-Wood, Noel Molland and Stephen Booth were all found guilty of conspiracy to incite others to commit criminal damage by carrying articles in the Green Anarchist newspaper.

When the sentence was announced, Molland, 25, from Throwleigh, Devon, punched the air and called out: "Earth liberation, animal rights," as supporters cheered and clapped him from a public gallery.

The trio of ecological and animal rights campaigners were convicted following an eleven-week trial at Portsmouth Crown Court. In passing sentence, Judge David Selwood told Molland, Burchnall-Wood, 24, and 38-year-old Booth that their actions were a "form of terrorism". "Those who incite such actions and who hope such actions will increase and proliferate are, at least in my view, as guilty as those who take part in the violent direct action," he said.

The jury acquitted a fourth defendant - Simon Russell, 33, who was the editor of the Animal Liberation Front newsletter.

During the trial, the prosecution had claimed articles in Green Anarchist urged readers to smash butchers' windows, burn lorries or buildings and send bombs through the post.

Burchnall-Wood, from Sandhurst, Berkshire, Booth, from Calgate, Lancashire, and Molland are all expected to appeal.

All the defendants claimed it was not a criminal prosecution but a political move by the state to crush free speech.