The Metropolitan Police announced that two elderly women in their 80s were charged with criminal damage after the glass that surrounds the Magna Carta was attacked at the British Library. On Friday, two protestors hit the protective casing that held the historic document with a hammer and chisel. The accused have been identified as the Rev Sue Parfitt and Judith Bruce, from Bristol and Swansea, respectively, and have since been released on bail. On 20 June, they are scheduled to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The Magna Carta had remained undamaged, and the incident resulted in only minimal damage to the glass cover. In response, the British Library stated the gallery that contains the exhibit would be closed until further notice. The campaign group named Just Stop Oil explained that before gluing themselves to the display, the women had raised a sign that read “the government is breaking the law.”
The Magna Carta’s role in defining basic rights is widespread and includes the recognition that nobody is higher than the law, including the reigning monarch, the right to a just trial, and limits on taxation without representation. It has inspired several other documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the US Constitution. The only three valid clauses are the one that ensures the rights of the English Church, the clause that confirms the City of London and other towns’ privileges, and the statute guaranteeing that no free man shall be held in prison without the lawful judgment of his peers.
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