A 20-year-old armed with a crossbow comes within 500 meters of the Queen's apartments at Windsor Castle. The young man is caught and is now on trial. He is accused of attempting an assassination. To try him, the British judiciary is using a law that is over 150 years old.
A 20-year-old man who broke into the grounds of Windsor Castle on Christmas Day has been charged with plotting to attack the Queen. The young man, who was carrying a crossbow, is accused of carrying a firearm "with intent to injure or threaten Her Majesty," London police said.
The maximum penalty under the Treason Act is seven years imprisonment. The corresponding law of 1842 was last applied in 1981. At that time, a man was sentenced to five years in prison for firing multiple shots at Queen Elizabeth II, but missing the queen.
The man is also accused of making death threats and possessing an assault weapon. He is scheduled to appear for a hearing at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court on August 17. The then 19-year-old from the southern English port city of Southampton entered the Queen's residence west of London on December 25, 2021, despite high security measures. He is said to have come within 500 meters of the Queen's private apartments, who were staying at Windsor Castle.
In a video that British media showed a few days later, the man himself had probably announced that he wanted to murder the Queen. In doing so, he is taking revenge for those who were killed, humiliated and discriminated against because of their origins and for those killed in the Amritsar massacre in 1919. At that time, British colonial troops opened fire on demonstrators in the Indian city of Amritsar, killing hundreds. He is an Indian Sikh, says the masked man in the clip.
