‘It’s my moral duty to speak out, regardless of jail threat’

Ex-army colonel Chris Romberg, 75, vows to attend more rallies despite ‘serious implications’ of Palestine Action arrest

- HOLLY BANCROFT

King Charles Street, in central London, is a road Colonel Chris Romberg knows well. It was his postal address during his final posting in the military, a link to home while he was overseas.

Nine days ago, the address became significant in Col Romberg’s life once again after he was arrested for the first time in his life and taken to a processing station - set up by the Metropolitan Police — on that same street.

Hundreds of protesters, many of whom - like the 75-year-old colonel - were retired, had silently held up placards in Westminster’s Parliament Square to protest genocide and express support for the group Palestine Action.

Due to the home secretary’s proscription of Palestine Action under terror laws, expressing support for it on a T-shirt or a sign is now a criminal offence. As a result, 522 arrests were made by the Met Police, some 112 of whom were over 70 years of age.

A former defence attache at the UK embassies in Jordan and Egypt, Col Romberg waited around five hours before he was arrested, and then a further three to be processed by officers and released on street bail.

He had been involved in campaigning for the Palestinian cause for some years, feeling motivated by the oppression he saw during his time in the Middle East. His father, aunts and grandparents, who were Christians of Jewish descent, fled Nazi-controlled Austria in 1938, he explained.