Apologies if this email isn’t as polished as usual, I’m away on holiday with my family with only limited access to WiFi, but I wanted to let you know what has happened as quickly as possible.

I can’t quite believe it - on Monday night six members of the CitizenGO team were arrested and held in appalling conditions in custody for several hours because they were protesting the disgusting mockery of Christianity that took place at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

As our petition to the International Olympic Committee proved so popular, gaining almost 400,000 signatures within a week, we decided to do what we do best and take your voice to the heart of the action in Paris.

Our media team immediately sprang into action and commissioned a bus, displaying a very simple message, ‘Stop Attacks on Christians!’ and the website address of our petition.

The bus began circulating Paris at 9am attracting the attention (and praise) of many passers-by and hundreds of police officers, without incident.

Then later that afternoon, at gunpoint the bus driver was flagged down by an officer and surrounded by armed police!

Together with the driver, our team was bundled into the back of a police van before being driven to a police station for ‘organising a demonstration without the approval of the French government’!

This was no oversight on our part - obviously before organising anything we always do our homework and the regulations pertain to formal large-scale street demonstrations and marches, not a solitary bus with a simple message.

Worse was to come. Once they had arrived at the police station, our brave campaigners were then handcuffed and taken to a second secure facility. All of their belongings were confiscated, they were stripped and searched, denied the opportunity to contact their lawyers and some were not even allowed to contact their family members.

Not only that, but they were placed under severe psychological pressure, with threats of extended captivity and spent the night in gross conditions, some even being deprived of food and water, all because of non-existent charges. 

We finally managed to get them the services of a lawyer who had to put significant pressure on the authorities in order to secure their release in the early hours of the morning, but their ordeal was not quite over.

Those who had not already been subject to police interrogation then had to return to the police station that afternoon for further questioning, before the prosecutors ruled what we knew all along - that there was no basis for charges, our campaigners had done nothing wrong!

Our lawyer had this to say:

“It appears impossible to constitute the crime of failing to communicate a protest because there is no protest in the presence of one unique vehicle. The prosecutor pushed the law to its limits to stop the bus and limit their free speech.  Moreover, the procedure was irregular.”

Here is a video of our team in the police van, prior to being handcuffed.


As you probably know, I’ve been arrested on suspected free speech offences and it’s not an experience that should be taken lightly. It is deeply degrading to be strip searched, put in a cell with an open latrine, swabbed for DNA, have your mugshot taken and be treated like a common criminal, when you know that you have done nothing wrong.

This is absolutely not what our campaigners were expecting when they went with the bus to Paris - their aim was to catch the imagination of those attending the Olympic Games and to send a strong message to the organisers that the public is not prepared to accept such blatant mockery of Christianity as happened at the Opening Ceremony. 

I couldn’t sleep for worrying when I heard this disturbing news last night and, I have to confess to feeling a little bit guilty, because I declined the opportunity to join the team in Paris due to being on holiday and therefore it ought to have been me in the jail cell. Having been through the experience before, I might have found it a little easier, whereas some of our team are experiencing shock, and I can’t say that I blame them!

Here’s the team being surrounded by police


The good news is the team is now safe and making their way home. Our sources tell us that the French police were acting under orders from high-ranking political officials, who were embarrassed by the attention that our campaign has been receiving and the stain on France’s reputation.

In one beautiful act of irony, our bus, which was clearly so offensive to the French police and authorities was parked at the Police Station in District 16, just 3 blocks from the Arc de Triumph, in front of everyone in the middle of downtown Paris. The French police wound up promoting the very thing they were attempting to censor!

In fact our message was deemed so threatening that once our team was released, the police demanded that it was removed from the bus. Naturally we refused and so the bus was expelled from the city, escorted by three police motorcycles.

Here we are leaving town. Liberte, equality, fraternite, but no prayers.


We are not going to let the authorities get away with this. We are now going to file a lawsuit against high-ranking key figures, who appeared to be behind the pressure to arrest us, and the gendarmerie. This cannot be allowed to happen.

This is ideological and political persecution. We will not let your voice be silenced. We will continue to stand up for your Christian values in the public square, because if we do not, then who will? We have to show that we will not be intimidated.

It is terrifying that a message calling for attacks on Christians to cease was met with such a disproportionate and vicious response from the authorities.

I’m sure you’ll join me in giving thanks that all our campaigners are now safe and sound and wish them all the best as they have a few very deserved days off.