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New protective dome fitted over one of the satellites at the Waihopai spy base - Source: ONE News -
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Three peace activists appeared in the Wellington District Court on Monday charged with an attack on the government spy base at Waihopai, near Blenheim, in April 2008.
Adrian Leason, Peter Murnane and Sam Land allegedly committed two acts of willful damage - cutting a fence and slashing an inflatable dome covering a satellite dish - and a third of burglary by being in the yard belonging to the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
In his opening address, Crown prosecutor Hugh Boyd-Wilson said GCSB security staff found the three men having what appeared to be a prayer meeting beside one of the domes.
They say the men were found with sickles, bolt cutters and Stanley knives beneath the deflated dome.
The defence claims the base is contributing to war efforts and genocide overseas.
Murnane says he felt it was urgently necessary to protect countless human beings, telling the court there is no dispute over what they did, but it was done to protect and defend all of the overseas civilians threatened by the spy base's existence.
Dozens of supporters of the three men rallied outside the Wellington District Court on Monday, carrying placards calling for the spy base to be shut down.
The trial is set down for eight days.
