THE Freedom Riders will hold a lobby outside the British Transport Police offices in York tomorrow where a misconduct hearing involving one of the officers involved in the controversial arrest of two of the group is taking place.
The arrests of George Arthur and Tony Nuttall were in June 2014 amid their campaign to reinstate free train travel for the elderly and disabled.
A complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission was upheld, leading to the hearing on Monday. Freedom Rider Fran Postlethwaite said George had now received a letter putting him 'on notice' that he must turn up to give evidence on Monday.
"The IPCC found there was a serious case for this officer to answer," she said. "Now we have a letter that implies that George will be in trouble if he fails to turn up.
"George wants to go and give evidence but we are worried this letter suggests it is George who is on trial rather than the officer. Once again we feel that we are having to battle for justice."
The Freedom Riders group has been campaigning for the return of the free local train travel in South Yorkshire after it was axed in 2014. A partial U turn was made by transport bosses weeks later but elderly people still pay half fare when they used to ride trains for free.
For several weeks in 2014, elderly and disabled people boarded trains en masse and refused to pay, travelling from Barnsley to Sheffield for rallies.
At one of their demonstrations on June 23 2014 George Arthur was arrested at Sheffield Railway Station in what he called an 'attack' on the demonstrators by the British Transport Police.
Mr Arthur made a total of nine complaints to the IPCC, including that 'unlawful force amounting to assault' had been used, that one officer lied in his statements, and that his statement had been constructed in an inflammatory way.
On these points the IPCC's commissioner Jennifer Izekor directed there should be a misconduct hearing, and said some of the actions - in her opinion - amounted to 'gross misconduct'.
The lobby takes place from 9.30am. A coach is leaving Barnsley at 8am. To join in, contact Fran Postlethwaite on 07837 996888.
