Tomorrow, Friday November 6th at 9.30 am, Osian Jones, North Wales organiser for Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg will be sentenced to a month in prison by Pwllheli Magistrates. The magistrates have already warned him that he faces imprisonment because of his refusal to pay fines for painting slogans on High Street stores as part of a Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg campaign for a comprehensive Welsh Language Measure. He has a £1,000 in fines and costs to pay for painting slogans on on Superdrug, Matelan, Boots and PC World stores in Bangor earlier this year.Osian will be the second member of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg to go to prison this year. Ffred Ffransis was imprisoned back in June for refusing to pay fines also imposed for his part in the campaign for a comprehensive Welsh Language Measure.

Osian Jones said:"It's interesting that both Ffred and I faced prison this year for our part in this particular campaign. What is more significant is that Ffred the 'offences' for which Ffred was imprisoned go back to January 2001 which proves that this particular campaign has been long and hard. The sad thing is, that the Welsh Language LCO which is now on offer, and which is the product of all this campaigning is utterly inadequate since it does not give the Welsh people their legitimate linguistic rights which enables them to live their lives fully through the medium of Welsh, nor does it's powers extend to the private sector.""Even though we argued our case with conviction before committees in both the National Assembly and at Westminster it became obvious to us that the legislative process in Wales is both wearisome and defective, and that we have no choice but to continue with our direct action campaign. I hope that my imprisonment will give other people the inspiration to campaign for the language and that we will see the responsibility for legislating on the Welsh language transferred in it's entirety to the National Assembly in the near future. The Welsh people have had to wait a long time to see their linguistic rights realised. They deserve a great deal more than the LCO which is now on offer."