John Bolton to be target of citizen's arrest at Hay Festival

John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, faces a citizen's arrest when he addresses an audience at the Hay Festival in Wales this evening.

George Monbiot, the journalist and activist, is planning the action because he believes Mr Bolton is a "war criminal".

He said he was surprised that Mr Bolton would be allowed to "swim through the politest of polite soirees – which is of course Hay."

Mr Bolton, who was the American ambassador to the UN from August 2005 to January 2006, is due to talk at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival at 6.30pm on international relations.

Mr Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian newspaper, plans to detain him as he steps off stage at the end of his talk. He said he was prepared to jump on stage and perform the citizen's arrest there if necessary.

He claimed Mr Bolton was "instrumental in preparing and initiating the Iraq war by disseminating false claims through the State Department" while he was under-secretary of state for arms control.

Mr Monbiot, who took part in a debate at Hay on Saturday entitled "Defeat: Why They Lost Iraq", has been a fierce critic of the decision to launch the 2003 invasion.

He said he had formally notified police of his intention of performing a citizen's arrest.

Mr Monbiot said: "This is the one opportunity we have, because he is mingling with the public, which doesn't happen very often."

He added: "I can't think of another case where someone who has been instrumental in planning the war has been exposed to the public, so I'm taking the opportunity.

"John Bolton was pushing for the Iraq war long before he became part of the administration." London Telegraph