Former United Kingdom Labor minister Lord Peter Melchett (in white) was held overnight in Norwich prison for an attack on genetically modified corn near Dereham, Norfolk. Melchett and 27 others were released on bail. Greenpeace UK photo.

July 28, 1999 -- Lord Peter Melchett, the executive director of Greenpeace in the United Kingdom, was granted conditional bail, according to sources in the UK. The former Labor minister was refused bail when he appeared before a stipendiary magistrate in Norwich accused with 27 others over an attack on a genetically modified (GM) corn trial at Lyng, near Dereham, Norfolk. Judge David Mellor granted bail after an application in chambers at Norwich Crown Court which lasted for just over half an hour. One of the conditions of bail was that Lord Melchett must not trespass or uproot genetically modified crops.

The 27 other Greenpeace volunteers charged with the same offences were all granted bail by the magistrate. Melchett was held in Norwich prison overnight. Speaking from the prison he said, "It is the GM crops which need containing not Greenpeace. It is a minority which is imposing its will on the majority -- the Government and agrochemical companies are the only people that want GM food. The majority -- nearly 90 percent of the British public -- have made it perfectly and repeatedly clear that they don't."

In another case, Martin Shaw, the organiser of a protest in which environment campaigners destroyed part of a genetically modified sugar beet crop, was sentenced to one month imprisonment, suspended for a year. Shaw and three others were banned from trespassing on Monsanto's genetically modified crop trial sites or damaging its plants. Mr Shaw, with art teacher Jill Bee, trainee teacher Alex Potts and gardener Rod Melia, uprooted sugarbeets on a plot of land at the agricultural trade show Cereals '99, held at Vine Farm, Wendy, near Royston, Herts, last month.