Wen shoe thrower in court

LONDON: A German student appeared before a British court yesterday accused of throwing a shoe at Chinese Premier¹ Wen Jiabao during a lecture at Britain's Cambridge University.

Prosecutors³ say Martin Jahnke, 27, threw the shoe while Wen was speaking to Cambridge students on Feb 2, the last day of his state visit to Britain. It landed about a meter away from him.

Jahnke also interrupted the lecture by blowing a whistle, and prosecutor² Caroline Allison said the incident had caused Wen and students "harassment⁴, alarm or distress⁵."

Jahnke, a pathology student at the university's Darwin College, denied the public order offence when he appeared before a district judge in Cambridge, the Press Association news agency reported.

Allison said what might have begun as lawful⁶ protest became "unreasonable⁷ behavior and an act of aggression⁸".

"He was heard to say words to the effect that the university was prostituting themselves by allowing the premier to speak and referred to the premier as a dictator," Allison said.

"He picked up one of his shoes, a trainer, and he threw that trainer, which must have been with some force, onto the stage area a few yards from where the premier was standing⁹.

"He maintained that this was a legitimate¹⁰ protest considering the crimes of the Chinese government."

Jahnke's lawyers failed in a bid to halt proceedings¹¹, arguing that the Chinese government had put pressure on the Crown Prosecution¹² Service and police to prosecute¹³.

However the judge ruled the prosecution was correctly brought and that the hearing should go ahead.

The hearing is scheduled to last for three days.