Maya Evans was freed from Bronzefield prison on Tuesday 6th March after serving seven days out of a 13 day sentence for anti-war activism.

Peace activist Maya Evans of anti-war group Justice Not Vengeance was released from HMP Bronzefield, near Ashford, Surrey, on Tuesday 6 March. She had served seven days of a 13 day sentence for non-payment of over £300 in fines and compensation for her part in a 2009 die-in outside Northwood HQ in north London. 

Maya was released about 7.40am and was greeted by three hardy supporters.

Maya's account of her participation in a recent US-UK peace delegation to Afghanistan can be found on the JNV website:

Original Story:

Long-time Hastings peace activist Maya Evans has just been jailed for 13 days for refusing to pay a fine. On 29 February at Hastings Magistrates Court Maya was jailed for non-payment of over £300 in fines and costs, stemming from a court case in November 2009.

She was originally arrested in May 2009 for taking part in a nonviolent “Die-in for NATO’s Victims in Afghanistan” outside Britain’s military nerve centre at Northwood, and later convicted of “obstructing the highway”. The  demonstration – held to mark the second anniversary of a NATO bombing attack that killed 47 Afghan civilians – was held to demand an end to the bombing of Afghanistan and the withdrawal of British troops from the country. NATO bombing has continued since then.  NATO recently confirmed the death of eight children in an airstrike earlier this month.

Refusing to pay the fine on grounds of conscience, Maya explained that she had just returned from a trip to Afghanistan where victims of the decade-long war had pleaded with her to return to the UK and highlight their plight. "I don't feel what I did on 27 May 2009 was a crime", she told the magistrates . "We were trying to highlight the war crimes that had been committed."

Maya recently returned from a month-long visit to Afghanistan where she worked with Afghan peace activists, and met with refugees, human rights workers and the relatives of civilians killed in an unmanned “drone” strike. She said: “In Afghanistan I met a young man whose sister had bee left widowed, with an infant son, by a NATO airstrike that killed five civilians. Meeting the victims of US and British policies has only strengthened my conviction that we need to terminate Britain’s role in this senseless and bloody war. Afghan peace campaigners urged me to do all I can to stop British involvement in their country. It is all of our responsibility to campaign against the death of innocent Afghan civilians, to pressurise our government which currently has blood in its hands.”

For more info contact: Justice Not Vengeance 07783 226 987

Please send letters and cards of support to

Maya Evans 
HMP Bronzefield 
Woodthorpe Road 
Ashford, Middlesex 
TW15 3JZ