Barman attempted a citizen’s arrest on Tony Blair for ‘crimes against peace’

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

A barman Twiggy Garcia has attempted a citizen’s arrest on Tony Blair for ‘crimes against peace’ while the former prime minister was dining with his family in a Shoreditch restaurant last week.

Mr. Garcia was working as a bartender at upmarket Tramshed restaurant when on Friday night he knew about Mr. Blair’s presence in the building. The part time music producer has told he was trying a citizen’s arrest on the basis of him being a “war criminal” who had launched an “unprovoked war against Iraq”.

Mr. Garcia has told ‘Vice’ magazine: “I went over to him, put my hand on his shoulder and said: ‘Mr Blair, this is a citizen’s arrest for a crime against peace, namely your decision to launch an unprovoked war against Iraq. I am inviting you to accompany me to a police station to answer the charge’.”

However, Mr. Blair refused the request and tried to engage him in a Syrian debate by saying: “Shouldn’t you be worried about Syria?” and I replied that I can only address things that are within my grasp at any one time.

Mr. Blair then asked: “Don’t you agree that Saddam was a brutal dictator and he needed to be removed?”

The barman responded: “Not by an illegal war.”

Mr. Garcia then told: “Then he started talking about how lots of people died in the 1980s.

“I paraphrased Robin Cook’s resignation speech and asked why we needed to go to war to remove a power we put in place, and didn’t our government and the U.S. provide Saddam with those weapons in the first place?”

In the meantime, one of Blair’s sons got up to get the family’s security team from downstairs, making Mr. Garcia to try for a hurried exit. 

He has since resigned from his job at a British chef and restaurateur Mark Hix’s owned Tramshed.

The U.K. citizens have the right to detain a person who they believe has broken the law under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.

Garcia has become the fifth person to attempt a citizen’s arrest on Tony Blair, and the first since Tom Grundy approached the former PM at Hong Kong University in June 2012.

Mr. Blair’s spokesperson has said: “There is nothing to report here apart from fact that Mr Blair did offer to discuss the issue – that offer was declined and the individual walked off. Nothing else happened. Everyone is fine and they had a great time at the restaurant.”

Article viewed on Oye! Times at www.oyetimes.com.