Newsletter August, 2010 |
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Working for a world where every person has the right to a fair trial, whatever their nationality, wherever they are accused. In this issue
CASE: PIERRE WASSEFPierre, a 29 year old British citizen, born and raised in London, was arrested in Egypt in October 2007 along with his younger brother. Both he and his brother have described brutal mistreatment and were denied food and water during the course of their two-day interrogation. Pierre was coerced into confessing to the importation and sale of large quantities of cocaine under the threat that, if he did not do so, his brother would be sentenced to death or 25 years in prison. He was forced to sign papers that he could not understand, and was provided with a blind interpreter who could not translate them for him. As well as his physical suffering, Pierre was denied the right to the presumption of innocence. Four days after he was arrested, the Egyptian authorities allowed news cameras into the prison to film him and he was publicly branded a drug trafficker. At this point, he had seen no judge and had not been charged. The publicity he received seriously undermined the possibility that he would receive a fair trial. Although Pierre was in custody throughout his trial, the police refused to bring him to court. Pierre was tried, convicted and sentenced to a 25-year prison term in his absence. Pierre appealed against both his conviction and his sentence, and was granted a retrial. Despite his lawyer’s condemnation of the conflicting police accounts and indications of possible evidence tampering, Pierre was again sentenced to 25 years and a large fine. Pierre intends to appeal this conviction. Pierre has spent two and a half years in a Cairo prison after which he was moved repeatedly. He is currently being held in a prison in Alexandria. Pierre has been permitted to make only one phone call to his family since he was detained. CASE: ANTHONY MALONEAnthony Malone, a 38 year old former paratrooper from Teesside, has been held in notorious Pol-i-Charkhi prison in Afghanistan since January 2008, despite the fact he has already completed his full sentence for a fraud offence. After an unfair trial in which no interpreter was provided and Anthony was unable to call witnesses in his own defence, a sentence of 10 months was passed, later increased to 2 years on appeal. The charge relates to a business dispute between Anthony, who was working as a military contractor, and a senior Afghan political official. The official claims that Anthony owes him money and the authorities are refusing to release Anthony until he pays an alleged “debt”. The amount of money Anthony allegedly owes, exactly to whom he owes it, and why have never been made clear by the court. In a recent hearing, the judge in Anthony’s case acknowledged that his detention is illegal under Afghan law (as the sentence has been fully served) but has refused to release him. Imprisonment for debt is illegal under both international and Afghan law. Furthermore, the prosecutor is the brother in law of the complainant in the case, raising further concerns that the prosecution is based on personal disputes rather than legal determinations. FTI is working with Anthony’s family and defence team to secure Anthony’s release as soon as possible. CAMPAIGN: RIGHT TO INFORMATION FOR SUSPECTSWork continues at EU level on a new law which would guarantee suspects across Europe the right to information about their basic rights and the charges against them. At FTI we help hundreds of clients who have been denied access to crucial information which has led to their inability to effectively mount a defence. The European Commission’s proposals do, however, signal an important step in avoiding such injustices. FTI has long campaigned for the effective protection of this crucial right and the Commission’s work on the proposals has explicitly recognised FTI’s contribution. As well as citing FTI cases that demonstrate the importance of the measure, the Commission has cited FTI research. This shows that, out of a sample of 30 FTI cases in Europe, suspects only reported being given this crucial information in two cases. FTI is currently working on its detailed response to the Commission’s proposals; telling further stories of fair trial abuses suffered by our clients in a bid to tackle the root causes of injustice in Europe. FTI is also continuing to campaign for crucial European guarantees of a fair trial, such as access to legal advice, legal aid, and reviews of pre-trial detention. EUROPEAN COMMISSION RAISES CONCERNS OVER EVIDENCE PROPOSALSThe European Commission has issued its own analysis of the proposals for a controversial new EU evidence gathering measure: the European Investigation Order (EIO). The Commission’s own detailed work on this issue was sidelined earlier this year, when eight Member States, including Slovenia and Luxembourg, rushed forward their own proposal for the EIO. In July, the UK Government decided to opt in to this proposal, which will now be debated at EU level. FTI has raised a number of concerns about the EIO with influential European Parliament committees and in the lead up to the recent opt in decision. The proposal means that prosecution authorities could order the police in another European country to conduct investigations and gather evidence on their behalf. The police would be unable to refuse the foreign request no matter how trivial the offence or how invasive the investigation. Police could also be forced to gather evidence relating to activity that is not even an offence in their country. In addition, the EIO is drafted purely as a prosecution tool, with no reference to the right of the defence to gather exculpatory evidence. The Commission’s analysis echoes a number of FTI’s own concerns. It notes, for example, that the lack of a comprehensive impact assessment means that it is not possible to determine whether the EIO respects fundamental rights. The Commission also criticises the lack of effective data protection – an important issue considering personal information such as recordings of telephone calls and DNA can be requested under the new powers. FTI welcomes the fact that these important issues have been recognised by the Commission. We will continue to campaign for important safeguards to be added to the EIO. We will also work to stop any new measure being brought into force before the necessary safeguards are in place to prevent it resulting in injustice and in privacy violations. Failure to do this crucial groundwork in the extradition context is a key reason for the injustices being caused under the European Arrest Warrant. For more information about the EIO click here. NEWS: GROWING AWARENESS OF INJUSTICE UNDER THE EUROPEAN ARREST WARRANTThe continued problems with the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) have been highlighted in recent front page press coverage. Drawing on FTI’s cases and policy work, the Sunday Telegraph reported on the continuing injustices wrought by Europe’s fast track extradition system. The paper revealed shocking new figures which show that the number of people surrendered from Britain to other European countries rose by more than 50% last year. Over one thousand people – almost three a day – were detained and extradited by the UK in the year 2009-2010. The EAW was rushed in after the horrific 9/11 attacks, removing political discretion in all extradition decisions and imposing tight deadlines. It makes transfer much quicker and important safeguards in the extradition system were stripped away, including the requirement that extradition must be proportionate. This has led to many people being extradited for minor offences, such as the theft of chickens, and has imposed a huge burden on the police who have to process EAWs for trivial offences. Although FTI agrees that there should be an effective system of extradition in Europe, over the last year we have been working to highlight the injustice that is being caused by the current system. The EAW is based on the principle that we can trust our European neighbours to do justice, so scrutiny is unnecessary. However, this ignores the fact that standards of justice vary widely across the EU. This is illustrated by many of FTI’s cases, such as those of Andrew Symeou, Deborah Dark , Garry Mann and Edmond Arapi. David Blunkett, British Home Secretary when the EAW system was introduced, has now recognised the injustices caused by the European extradition system. Mr Blunkett said that although he believed he was right to support the introduction of the EAW system, he was “insufficiently sensitive to how it might be used”. FTI continues to campaign for reform of the EAW, and will be taking an active role in the coalition Government’s review of the UK’s extradition procedures. For more information about the European Arrest Warrant click here. NEWS: JOIN FTI’S TEAMFTI is looking for an experienced Communications Officer to further establish FTI as a recognised expert in international fair trial issues. You will design and deliver effective communications strategies to further the best interests of FTI’s clients, advance our campaign goals and engage our supporters. You will be responsible for creating and securing quality media coverage for FTI both reactively and proactively, drawing on the charity’s expertise and its unique access to real human stories of injustice. Your experience in a busy press office, PR agency or communications role will equip you with a good understanding of the way the media works. Your excellent written communication skills will enable you to produce compelling materials targeted at a wide range of audiences, often at short notice. Your experience of maintaining a website and knowledge of social networking sites will give you the skills to increase FTI’s online profile. Support us
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