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CAMPAIGN AGAINST CRIMINALISING COMMUNITIES
News Bulletin November - December 2003
Police can use terror powers on protestors
Civil rights campaigners yesterday lost their bid for
a high court ruling that anti-terrorist laws were used unlawfully
to stop and search demonstrators
at
an international arms fair in east London. Scotland Yard initially denied
using the legislation but later admitted it had been used in some
cases
during the policing operation.
Lord Justice Brooke and Mr Justice Kay said the use of the random and
search powers and any violation of human rights had been justified in the light
of the threat of terrorism. But they did give permission for an appeal
to be
lodged because of the wide public importance.
Guardian 1 November
Indefinite detention without trial upheld
On 28 October 2003, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission
(SIAC) upheld the
detention of ten men detained without trial or charge under the
Anti-Terrorism Crime and
Security Act 2001 (ATCSA).
In total, sixteen men have been arrested under the ATCSA since
it became law on 14
December 2001. The men cannot be deported and have been classified
as 'suspected
international terrorists'. Two of the men have 'voluntarily' left
the UK ('voluntary departure'
or detention without trial being the only options open to these
men). There are currently
fourteen men being held in maximum security prisons and special
hospitals in the UK.
The recent hearings involved ten men, six others are awaiting their
appeals against
detention to be heard.
Most of them were arrested in December 2001 as a result of legislation
brought in soon
after the September 11 attacks in America. The men - all 'foreign
nationals' (only foreign
nationals can be indefinitely detained under the law) - had appealed
against their
detention under the Act. The appeals began in May and much of the
evidence against
them was heard in closed court. Even the men's lawyers were not
allowed access to
that evidence against them as it is deemed specially sensitive.
Instead, specially
appointed barristers, security cleared by MI5 - special advocates
- acted on their behalf.
Statement from detainees
After the SIAC decision, Gareth Peirce, the lawyer for some of
the men, read out a
statement made on behalf of appellants H, G, F, B and A:
* A
number of the appellants had asked to be present at their appeal
decisions but had
been refused by SIAC. The following are the points that they have
asked their lawyers to
express on their behalf.
* They expect now to remain locked up for the
remainder of their lives. Each knows
that he has been involved in no action in support of terrorism.
Since the largest
percentage of the hearings have been in secret no-one knows what
in particular has
been said against him. A number have been said to be members of
groups of which
they have never heard.
* All are certain that there neither is nor has
been a national emergency, let alone one
created or contributed to by their presence in this country.
* The detainees believe that Parliament was misled.
During the passage of this
legislation it was never informed that reliance would be placed
on evidence obtained
from torture and ill treatment worldwide. The appellants express
their astonishment the
onus has been placed on them to prove this.
* The appellants consider it entirely wrong to
accord the deference that has been
accorded to the government and the security services. The same
political agenda that
created 'weapons of mass destruction' and claimed there was an
immediate threat to
this country has created a wish to find danger from the presence
in this country of these
appellants.
* Secrecy has been chosen over due process and
is a dangerous precedent for the
future, not just for these detainees. Their arrest and continuing
detention without due
process marks the entry of this country into a new dark age of
injustice.
* Lastly, the appellants have been detained for
now 2 years. They express their grief
that it has been chosen to give these decisions at the beginning
of Ramadan. The
impact is not merely upon them but upon their wives and children
also.
From report by Institute of Race Relations, 4 November 2003
MP's accuse Home Office over secrecy
MP's launched a scathing attack on secrecy in the government
yesterday, accusing it of
blocking parliamentary scrutiny into Britain¹s preparations
for a terrorist attack. The
criticism of the government, particularly the Home
Office, came in a report from the
Commons cross-party science and technology committee.
Its report, the Scientific Response to Terrorism, accused officials of
refusing to provide
information that was already in the public domain. Yesterday¹s
report also attacked the
government for not allowing MPs access to parts of the chemical
and biological warfare
research establishment at Porton Down.
Guardian 7 November
Torture at Guantanamo
Richard Bourke, an Australian lawyer living in the USA who has
been working on behalf
of some Gauntanamo detainees, has claimed that the US authorities
use torture at
Guantanamo Bay. He told ABC radio in Australia that one of
the detainees had
described being tied to a post and having rubber bullets
fired at him. Prisoners were
being made to kneel cruciform in the sun until they collapsed. This
follows media
accounts of several detainees having attempted suicide. Bourke
called on the United
Nations to investigate the reports of torture. Such methods are
prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, the
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or
Punishment and US law. Equally disturbing, and as illegal, are
reports that a number of
detainees have been turned over for questioning to countries where
torture and other
mistreatment are common, such as Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and even
Syria. The
Pentagon has refused to confirm or deny these allegations.
According to Alia Malek, a human rights attorney, writing in the
American Daily Star, the
USA should respect international law about the treatment of POWs
and other war
captives. She suggests that the rest of the world, especially
the European Union, must
insist vigorously on respect for the international system, and
if necessary sanction the
US under it.
According to Aljazeera, the Arab TV station, an Algerian lawyer,
Hassan Ariebi, last
month visited Washington and New York and tried to convince the
Americans that a lot
of the prisoners are innocent. He claimed that "Algerian prisoners
were taken from
Bosnia and have no connection whatsoever with al-Qaida members.
I met some of the
freed prisoners when they were released. They confirmed to me that
some of the Camp
X-ray guards converted to Islam because they sympathised with the
innocent prisoners."
Amongst those held at Guantanamo Bay is Mozzam Begg, a father of
four from central
England. According to his solicitor, he was kidnapped by US forces
from Pakistan in
Febuary 2002 and taken into Afghanistan against his will. He was
transferred to
Guantanamo Bay a year later. His family insists that he is innocent
and is demanding
that he is released by the Americans and returned to the UK.
9 November, see www.Aljazeera.net and AFP, Canberra, Austrialia
Blunkett unveils blueprint for ID cards
British citizens will within four years be forced to supply fingerprints
for new passports under a national identity
scheme unveiled by David Blunkett yesterday in the face of
concerted cabinet opposition.. From 2007-8, people renewing their
passports will have
to supply fingerprints and other information that will be incorporated
into a chip on a
plastic card.
FT 12 November
Father claims son has been tortured
The father of a Birmingham man detained as a suspected terrorist
in Guantanamo Bay
yesterday claimed his son had been brutally tortured.
Azmat Begg said 35-year-old Moazzam had made references to being
beaten by US
interrogators at the notorious Camp Delta in Cuba.
Mr Begg's comments came after lawyers for his son and a second
detained Briton
intensified pressure on Prime Minister Tony Blair to use next week's
visit by President
George Bush to secure the suspects¹ return to Britain.
'We are concerned he is in a state of depression,' said Mr
Begg. He also mentioned his
fingernails were being treated and that he was using cream to apply
to his body. The
main reason for the American authorities not to show prisoners
to the public or to
lawyers or relations is because their body is not in the right
shape. 'They must have
tortured them so badly that it is not possible to show it to their
relations,' he said.
Chairman of the Bar Council's human rights committee Peter
Carter QC said he was
concerned a series of negotiations between Attorney General Lord
Goldsmith and the
Pentagon had failed to reach agreement. 'The problem is that Lord
Goldsmith is not a member of the Cabinet and it looks, sadly,
as if his efforts have failed', Mr Carter said.
Birmingham Post, 13 November
US fires Guantanamo defence team
A team of military lawyers recruited to defend alleged terrorists held
by the US at
Guantanamo Bay was dismissed by the Pentagon after some of its
members rebelled
against the unfair way the trials have been designed,
the Guardian has learned. And
some members of the new legal defence team remain deeply unhappy with
the trials -
known as 'military commissions'- believing them
to be slanted towards the
prosecution and an affront to modern military justice.
Of the more than 600 detainees at the US prison camp at Guantanamo,
none has been
charged with any crime, and none has had access to a lawyer although
some have
been in captivity of one kind or another for two years.
In an investigation into the Guantanamo prison camp, the Guardian
has also learned that
a number of prisoners believed to be between two and five-
are kept permanently
isolated in a supersecure facility within the main prison camp
at Guantanamo, Camp
Delta.
Guardian 26 November
America's enemy within
In December 1990 President George Bush snr travelled through South
America to sell
the continent a bold new dream 'A free trade system
that links all the Americas'. Last
week, Bush's two sons joined forces to try to usher
in that new world by holding the
FTAA negotiations in Florida.
Despite the brothers' best efforts the dream of a hemisphere
united into a single
free-market economy died last week - killed not by demonstrators
in Miami but by the
populations of Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia who let their politicians
know that if they sign
away more power to foreign multinationals they may as well not
come home.
The more control the US trade representatives lost at
the negotiating table the more raw
power the police exerted on the streets. Small, peaceful demonstrations
were attacked
with extreme force, organisations were infiltrated by undercover
officers who used stun
guns, buses of union members were prevented from joining
permitted marches, people were beaten with batons
and activists had guns pointed at
their heads at checkpoints.
The FTAA summit in Miami represents the official homecoming of
the 'war on terror'.
Guardian 26 November
Terror bill may be abused, say MPs
The government's emergency powers bill is open to abuse by
ministers and may lead to
the 'dismantling of democracy', a joint committee of
MPs and peers warns today. The
special inquiry into the government's plans to update its
powers to tackle terrorist
attacks and natural disasters concluded the plans have 'potentially dangerous
flaws'.
The powers are contained in the civil contingencies bill which
updates the Emergency
Powers Acts of the 1920s and 1940s brought in to deal with
a general strike and a
Soviet nuclear attack on Britain.
Guardian 28 November
Anti-terrorist bill open to misuse
David Blunkett is accused today by a parliamentary inquiry of
endangering civil liberties
and infringing human rights with his planned emergency anti-terrorist
powers.The bill will
allow the Queen or a cabinet minister to declare a state of emergency
and then pass
regulations deemed necessary for preventing or controlling a crisis.
Ministers will be able
to order police chiefs to detain people, evacuate areas and seize
or destroy property.
FT 28 November
'Terrorist' assumed guilty before trial?
David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, was accused of 'acting as judge
and jury' in the
case of an Islamic student, Sajit Badat, after police allegedly
found explosives at Sadat's
parents' home in Gloucester at the end of November (Independent,
29.11.03, `Blunkett
accused of putting at risk fair trial for terror suspect¹).
Blunkett claimed on TV that Sadat
was `part of a wider network' and 'posed a very real threat
to the life and liberty of our
country'. This only hours after Sadat¹s arrest and before
his questioning by police had
even finished, neer mind his trial. AS Blunkett was reminded by
both the Attorney
General, Lord Goldshmith QC, and by Dominic Griee MP, Shadow Attorney
General,
politicians should not make comments which would prejudice any
future trial. This is yet
one more example of how the 'war against terror' is
conducted in a way which treats
people as guilty until proved innocent, whilst making it very difficult
for them to prove their
innocence.
29 November
Trials to prepare for compulsory ID cards
The Home Office admitted yesterday that its six month trial of
hi tech passports would
lay the 'foundations for a compulsory identity card scheme'.
The pilot scheme, which starts next month, will involve 10,000
volunteers receiving
personalised smart cards containing biometric information, initially
a digital image of their
faces based on a passport photograph.
www.guardian.co.uk/online,
Guardian, 4 December
Rights vs security
The stakes are rising over the treatment of those detained by the
US in the so-called war
against terrorism. A US appeal court is currently considering whether
Zacarias
Moussaoui, accused of helping plan the attacks of 11 September
2001, should face
charges that would lead to his execution while being denied access
to witnesses
essential to his defence.
FT 4 December
The 'VATAN' case; more charges
The case against the six people who were arrested and charged under
anti-terror
legislation for supporting the struggle for democracy in Turkey
in December last year
continued at Kingston Crown Court on 5th December.
The day before the hearing the Crown Prosecution Service faxed
the defendants' legal
representatives with details of new indictments that they
intend to bring against the
defendants. Having already pleaded not guilty to two charges on
11th June (membership
of a proscribed organisation, namely the DHKP-C, and 'facilitating
the retention or
control of terrorist property') the VATAN six are now likely
to face three new charges,
two relating to conspiracy. These are conspiracy to facilitate
retention or control of
terrorist property, fund-raising for a terrorist organisation,
and conspiracy to fund-raise.
They will be required to enter a plea concerning the new indictments
on the first day of
the the trial, now fixed for 16th February 2004 at Kingston Crown
Court.
Meanwhile some of their bail conditions have been eased, although
they remain banned
from distributing two magazines which are legal in Turkey and in
Germany, namely
VATAN (Homeland) and Ekmek ve Adalet (Bread and Justice). CAMPACC
continues to
draw attention to this case as an example of how the Terrorism
Act 2000 threatens
freedom of speech, association and publication, often in relation
to groups and issues
which have not been associated with any violent acts on British
soil.
6 December
Lawyer to visit Camp Delta man
An Australian lawyer will make the first independent legal visit
to Guantanamo Bay's
Camp Delta tomorrow to meet David Hicks, accused of fighting for
the Taleban.
Stephen Kenny will become the first non-military lawyer to visit
the camp when he
begins five days of talks with Mr Hicks and a US military lawyer,
Major Michale Mori.
Guardian, 10 December
Charges dropped in Algerian terror case
A solicitor acting for nine Algerian men who were detained
under the Terrorism Act for
four months before being released on bail compared
their treatment to that of the
Birmingham Six yesterday.
The men were detained last December
after raids in
London and Edinburgh. They then appeared at Edinburgh
Sheriff Court under the
Terrorism Act 2000.
But in March the men were released on bail pending
further investigation. And
yesterday the Crown Office in Scotland announced that no further
action would be taken
against them. Aamer Anwar, a solicitor acting for some of the men,
called for an inquiry
into the handling of the cases.
The Independent, 10 December
Parliamentary review of the internment powers under ACTSA 2001
The Parliamentary review of powers to intern foreign terrorist
suspects without trial,
under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, has finished
its official report, for
which CAMPACC submitted evidence in the summer. The internment
provisions have
been condemned and the
Committee recommended a further debate on the whole of the ATCS
Act 2001
without which the law would be wiped off the statute book. The
committee of Privy
Counsellors, chaired by former Tory Cabinet minister Lord Newton
of Braintree,
criticised the internment powers because they risk a miscarriage
of justice. Its report
argues for urgent replacement of the powers, under Part 4 of the
Act, to detain foreign
suspects indefinitely. More controversial are its recommendations
about what else
could be done to avert the presumed terrorist threat. The committee
wants Parliament to
consider lifting the ban on the use of phone tap evidence in court,
which apparently
might allow more suspects actually to be charged. It also suggests
that suspects could
be electronically tagged, told to report daily to a police station
and to use only one bank
account, with jail if they breached these conditions. The
danger may be that if powers
against suspects are made more palatable, from the point of view
of their human rights
and mental health, the state might use them more widely than the
seventeen individuals
so far affected, and for longer periods than someone might normally
spend on bail
awaiting trial. More worrying is the committee's view
that ACTSA `does not meet the full
extent of the threat - for example it does not deal with British
nationals'. CAMPACC will
want to see a full debate on these issues and above all on how
to remove the sense of
persecution and fear of intimidation which has hung over Muslim
communities in Britain
since the anti-terrorism laws were passed. A civilised and supposedly
democratic
society should not need to threaten people with any form of legal
restraint without proper
charge pending a fair trial. MI5 is believed to oppose the use
of phone tap evidence in
court because this would reveal the nature and extent of intelligence
operations to juries
and to the press. There is also a risk that if provoked to
justify detentions, police might
be tempted to bring prosecutions on weak evidence which have low
chances of
success, but every chance of ruining individuals¹ lives and
job prospects even if they are
eventually proved innocent, as with the unfortunate North African
pilot Lotfi Raissi.
Blunkett immediately dismissed the report, saying internment is
necessary for public
protection. Some of us might argue that the Home Secretary should
be re-shuffled out of
his post for public protection, and replaced by someone with more
concern for justice
and human rights. See a summary of the official report here and
coverage in the Evening
Standard. Also coverage on BBC
NEWS
10 December
Blunkett threatens to end 20-year link with Amnesty
David Blunkett threatened to resign from Amnesty International
yesterday after it claimed
that the government was infringing the basic human rights of some
foreigners, on
publication of its report, UK Justice Perverted under the Anti-terrorism,
Crime and
Security Act 2001.
FT, 12 December
Fire staff to get terrorist response training
Thousands of fire-fighters will be given specialist training to
respond to the increased
threat, the minister responsible for the fire service suggested
yesterday.
FT, 12 December
Hamburg trial of 9/11 suspect collapses
The trial of a Moroccan accused of plotting the September 11 attacks
on New York and
Washington spectacularly collapsed last night after new evidence
from a mystery
witness believed to be the al Qaeda mastermind Ramzi bin al Shibh
was presented in to
a German court.
In an embarrassing blow to US efforts to bring to justice those
involved, a judge ordered
the immediate release of Abdelghani Mzoudi.
Mt Mzoudi, 31, had been on trial for four months. He was allegedly
a member of the
Hamburg based Al Qaeda cell which organised the attacks and was
said to have
provided logistical support to Mohammed Atta and the other plane
hijackers.
Guardian, 12 December, www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida
Bin Laden 'gave attack orders'
A Turkish man charged over a wave of car bombings in Istanbul has
told the court that
the orders for the attacks were given personally by Osama bin Laden,
Turkish
newspapers said yesterday. Feyzi Yigit, one of the 33 suspects indicted
over the
bombings on November 15 and 20, which killed 62 people, said that
two Turkish men
met the Al-Qaeda head in Afghanistan on an unspecified date to
receive orders for the
attacks.
The Times 16 December
Denial of justice
As members of the Black-Jewish Forum, a network of black, Asian
and Jewish people
committed to mutual understanding, we strongly support
the view expressed by the
Bishop of Selby and his colleagues(Letters, December 13) that the
detention without trial
of foreign citizens suspected of terrorism 'offends every
notion of justice, equal
treatment of people and the rule of law'. We join them in
calling on the home secretary
to ensure that if the men in question are not charged and given
a fair trial, they must be
released without delay.
In the same issue you also report the campaign by Muslim organisations
against the
treatment of British Muslims arrested as part of the 'war
on terror'. The two complaints
are closely linked. The foreign citizens subjected to indefinite
detention are mainly
Muslims. Muslims are also disproportionately the victims of the
powers provided by the
anti-terrorism legislation against British citizens.
We do not question the need to arrest and bring to trial those
suspected on reasonable
grounds of terrorist activity, but widespread police harassment
of Muslims and others of
Asian origin under the pretext of fighting terrorism demands the
home secretary's urgent
action.
The Times 16 December
US accused of hypocrisy over prisoner of war status
The US administration was accused of gross hypocrisy yesterday
after granting
Saddam Hussein the legal rights that for more than two years it
has denied the 600
detainees held in Guantanamo Bay. The treatment of Saddam as a
prisoner of war under the terms of the Geneva Convention and the
promises he will be given a fair trial
contrast with the status of 'illegal combatants' picked
up by the coalition forces in the
war against terror.
The Independent 17 December
EU to concede to US demands for information on air travel
US 'anti-terrorism' demands for European airlines to
pass on information about
transatlantic passengers do not break European
Union privacy laws, the European
Commission is expected to rule today.
Washington has called for information such as addresses, contact
telephone numbers
and email and credit card information for all travellers to the
US. Despite pressure from
the Parliament to ensure that the EU's own data protection
directive is enforced, the
Commission has been unable to stop almost
all European airlines providing extensive
data on passengers to US under threat of hefty fines.
FT 16 December
In debate on anti-terrorism, the courts assert themselves
The broad presidential powers invoked by the Bush administration
after Sept. 11, 2001,
to detain suspected terrorists outside the civilian court system
is now being challenged
by the federal courts, the very branch of the government the White
House hoped to circumvent.
The two separate appellate court rulings swept away crucial parts
of the administration's
legal strategy to handle terrorist suspects outside the criminal
justice system and
incarcerate them indefinitely without access to lawyers or to the
evidence against them.
The rulings demonstrated powerfully the willingness of the courts
to challenge the
administration's procedures, which were put in place without Congressional
approval in
the tumultuous months that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.
The issue of whether the administration has gone too far will not
be decided definitively
until the cases reach the Supreme Court. The court has agreed to
decide whether
detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are entitled to access
to civilian courts to
challenge their open-ended detention.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the
two decisions were a
serious setback for the administration's legal approach.
Washington Post, 20 December
'Secret' detainee tells of jail despair
A man detained in Britain without charge or trial for two
years on the basis of secret
evidence he can neither know about nor challenge has told
of his despair at his
treatment under the anti-terrorism legislation. Exactly two years
after he was arrested at
his family home in the early hours and taken to Belmarsh high-security
prison, Mahmoud
Abu Rideh is the first of 14 detainees held on suspicion of terrorism
to speak out
publicly, through a letter sent to the Guardian.
In it, he tells of his horror at his arrest, his humiliation in
prison and the deterioration of
his mental health. He has now been moved to the high-security Broadmoor
psychiatric hospital.
Guardian 20 December
Blunkett defies Archbishop's attack on detention
policy
David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, refused to back down yesterday
over the detention
of foreign terror suspects in the face of scathing criticism from
the Archbishop of
Canterbury. Dr Rowan Williams supported a committee of senior parliamentarians who
last week demanded an end to the incarceration, without trial or
charge, of 14 foreign
nationals.
Speaking before his Christmas Day sermon, in which he will return
to the same theme, the Archbishop denounced the detentions in the UK and the
holding of British Muslims by the US authorities at their military base at Guantanamo Base,
Cuba.
The Independent 22 December
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CAMPACC News Bulletin No 5 is published by
Campaign Against Criminalising Communities - CAMPACC
c/o 44 Ainger Road
London NW3 3AT
Tel 020 7586 5892
or 0230 7250 1315
Fax 020 7483 2531
www.cacc.co.org
estella24@tiscali.co.uk
or knklondon@gn.apc.org
Next CAMPACC meeting
Monday 26 January 7:30pm. ALL WELCOME!
For more details, please phone Estella on 020 7250 1315 or 020
7586 5892.
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