Word: courtelis
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...public - in 2001, someone threw an egg at then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who famously threw a punch back, and more recently, Business Secretary Peter Mandelson was the victim of a green-custard attack by an environmentalist. But cases like those don't usually end up in court. (See the top 10 awkward moments...
...Jahnke's lawyer argued that there had been pressure from the Chinese government to put his client on the stand. The claim was strongly denied by the prosecution, and the court ruled that there was no evidence of that. It remains unexplained, however, why the only witnesses who claimed that Jahnke's behavior had caused them anything resembling "harassment, alarm and distress" were Chinese students who had initially been contacted by a London law firm acting on behalf of the Chinese embassy...
...Jahnke hadn't meant to hurt anybody with the shoe, he told the court. By throwing it at the podium, he had simply wanted to make an "iconic protest" against China's human-rights abuses. He was inspired, he said, by journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi - known as the Iraqi shoe thrower - who took aim at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad in December 2008. Al-Zaidi was imprisoned for three years, though his sentence was recently reduced to one year. Shoe-throwing has since become a universally recognized gesture of defiance against a "regime that is not accountable...
...fact, Jahnke hadn't expected to be the only protester in the hall, he told the court. He had brought a whistle only to join in. When Wen - who was, according to Jahnke, greeted by a standing ovation - and his speech went unchallenged, Jahnke decided to go it alone. He was "terrified," he said, and to his surprise, no one supported...
...Tiananmen Square massacre, Jahnke was acquitted of any wrongdoing for his symbolic act against the Chinese government. But how symbolic is it that in Britain - which prides itself on its history of democracy, free speech and debate - he found himself speaking out alone, and then sitting in a criminal court...