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Aamer Anwar wins court battleThree judges sitting at Edinburgh High Court ruled on 1 July that human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar DID NOT commit contempt of court in statements he made following the conviction of his client, Mohammed Atif Siddique, on "terrorism" charges last September. SACC welcomes Anwar judgement - SACC welcomes Aamer Anwar's victory in his contempt of court case and accuses Lord Carloway - the judge in the Siddique trial - of misusing the law of contempt. (SACC Press Release, 1 July) Judicial Sour Grapes? - "these judicial comments sound very much like sour grapes." - Editorial in The Scotsman, 2 July Statement from Aamer Anwar read outside the High Court in Edinburgh after the judgement.
Lawyers, public figures, community leaders and concerned citizens have put their names to an open letter supporting Aamer Anwar, published as an advertisement (pdf) in The Sunday Herald on 27 April 2008. View the signatures to the Open Letter Defend Aamer Anwar- campaign news You will need Adobe Reader to view and print the pdf files on this page. Get it here. |
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Police attack Stop the War DemoThe ban on the demonstration down Whitehall to protest the visit of war criminal George Bush (15 June) was enforced with violence by the Metropolitan police. Two protestors were hospitalised by baton wielding police. Prominent supporters of Stop the War Coalition condemned police violence.
"Our civil liberties are becoming another casualty of the 'war on terror'. I was born in a dictatorship and look with great concern at
recent erosions of our liberties. At the demonstration today all I wanted to do with others was to peacefully deliver my letter to the
Prime Minister. I was prevented from doing so and instead witnessed brutality towards the demonstrators." |
42 days - Still fighting backGordon Brown has brought the Labour Party and the British Parliament into disrepute by using of bribery and threats to win a hairsbreadth majority for the extension to 42 days detention without charge for terrorist suspects - a measure that almost nobody sincerely supports.
42 day detention is likely to be rejected by the House of Lords and sent back to the Commons for MPs to think again. Please tell your MP that you expect them to vote against it when they next get a chance. The absurdity of the measure - which not even the police want - is now exposed for all to see. There is no reason for any MP to support the plan. There is only one way for Brown to get out of this. He should withdraw the Counter Terrorism Bill. Sign the e-petition to the Prime Minister calling on him to abandon the Counter-Terrorism Bill Civil Liberties high on the Agenda after Davis's byelection victory |
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Keep Torture Flights Out of ScotlandThe CIA acknowledged recently that the rendition programme will continue. According to the most recent official figures, the United States is currently holding 27,000 secret prisoners around the world. Many prisoners are being held in Iraq and, according to lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, the the US is bringing people into Iraq from elsewhere to hold them there. Scottish airports are still wide open to flights providing illegal support for secret detention and torture. In the past they have provided crucial support for illegal renditions. SACC has evidence (eg Rendition plane lands at Glasgow ) that several aircraft suspected of links to the CIA's rendition programme have landed in Scotland in the past year. The Scottish Parliament must take action to make keep torturers and their accomplices out of Scotland.
THE PETITION IS NOW CLOSED TO NEW SIGNATURES |
Interview with a detaineeHussain Al-Samamra is a Paletinian from Jordan who came to Britain as an asylum-seeker. Now the British government wants to deport him as a "threat to national security." Although he has not been charged with any crime, he is being held pending deportation in Long Lartin Prison, Worcestershire. He says:
Britain's system of Justice is worse than Jordan's because at least in Jordan they don't hide their injustice
behind farcical court proceedings and difficult vocabulary. At least the Jordanians are not snakes.
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Latest NewsCivil Liberties high on the Agenda after Davis's byelection victory
11 July 2008 Law Society of Scotland urged to act over "misuse" of contempt law in Anwar case
03 July 2008 Scotland wants no part in extraordinary rendition
02 July 2008 |
Background and CommentJudicial Sour Grapes?
by The Scotsman, 02 July 2008 Turks Court Disaster
30 June 2008 Hamid Karzai - The Most expensive Mayor of the world
by Mohammad Naveen Asif, 19 June 2008 Creating SuspectsThe "War on Terror" promotes a racist culture of suspicion towards migrant and Muslim communities. It generates and manipulates public fears to justify a perpetual state of war. It started long before the 11th September attacks Ordinary criminal law provides more than adequate powers for the police to protect the public, but that law is not adequate for the anti-democratic 'war on terror'. We are meant to distrust others and to accept new state powers
as our benign protector. Attacks on civil liberties are not
simply a means but also a fundamental purpose of this 'war on
terror'... |
About SACCSACC - Scotland Against Criminalising Communities - is a grassroots group that campaigns against Britain's anti-terrorism acts and offers solidarity to the communities most affected by them. SACC is affiliated to the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities, to the Stop the War Coalition and to the UK's National Guantanamo Coalition. |
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