Blair nearly pinched over war crimes
Tony Blair in citizen’s arrest scare as Brussels journalist tries to detain him over ‘war crimes’
A journalist tried to arrest Tony Blair for ‘crimes against peace’ as the former prime minister arrived to give a speech at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Mr Blair flinched as his accuser, left-wing writer David Cronin, wearing a press pass and carrying a notepad, put a hand on his wrist and told him: ‘This is a citizen’s arrest.’
The former leader is then said to have given would-be detainer a ‘bewildered and contemptuous’ stare before bodyguards pounced.
As Mr Cronin was pushed away on Monday, he shouted ‘Mr Blair, you are guilty of war crimes’ referring to the Iraq invasion.
English law allows anyone to try and arrest someone they know has committed a crime when it is not practical for the police to do so.
Although the concept of citizen’s arrest is woollier in Belgian law, Mr Cronin said he wanted to to escort the former leader to a nearby police station to be charged with committing a ‘war of aggression’.
It is the second time that Mr Blair’s bodyguards have had to step in to protect him in six months.</em>
So, why in this article are war crimes and war of aggression in single quotes, as if they were somehow in dispute?
