RSS

Tag Archives: Matthew Newton

The Farooqi Family Still in Need of Our Support

An entire family, including a young baby and an eight year-old child, face being thrown out of their family home in Manchester, England, under anti-democratic legislation. The seven members of the family of Munir Farooqi are being threatened with the collective punishment, after he was convicted of terrorist offences and jailed in September of 2011.

The basis for eviction is that the house in the Longsight district of the city was the location of some of the alleged crimes of which Farooqi was convicted. Under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, the house is being subject to forfeiture as property, as it was deemed to have been used “for the purposes of terrorism”. The attempt to seize the home and evict three generations of the family is the first time the forfeiture clause in the law has been used since it was passed.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said:

“The power to forfeit residential premises in these circumstances is a new power under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, and before any decision is made, the forfeiture application is considered by the court and the family will be given an opportunity to be heard.”

If the order is granted, the property would be sold and the proceeds placed into the Magistrates’ Court. The state is attempting to seize the home, even though it does not belong to Munir Farooqi. The deeds of the property are in the name of his wife, Zeenat Farooqi.

Munir’s son, Harris Farooqi, lives in the house and was acquitted of a charge of preparing for an act of terrorism. He explained:

“It’s a family house. Why is it collective punishment in a democratic society? I don’t understand. We as British citizens work here all our lives and then we’re thrown out onto the streets.”

Munir Farooqi was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism, three counts of soliciting to murder and dissemination of terrorist publications. Two other men, Matthew Newton and Hussain Malik, were also jailed following an undercover operation by police from the North West Counter Terrorism Unit (NWCTU). As part of the operation, which was more than a year in duration, undercover police who pretended to become Muslim and sought information and guidance from Munir met with him in his house and made secret recordings of the conversations about Islam that occurred there.

Farooqi and the other defendants in the case denied all the charges against them. And he is currently appealing his conviction. The men were jailed, despite the police finding no evidence that they were actually preparing a crime. Instead, they were jailed on the basis of their “ideology” (thought crimes) which in fact means that they were jailed only because they are Muslim, and for holding Islamic beliefs. Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Porter, the head of the NWCTU, was forced to acknowledge that their was no evidence and that thes men were singled out due to their faith and charged and tried simply for their thoughts and beliefs. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

Posted by aseerun on December 23, 2011 in Campaigns, News Items

Tags: collective punishment, Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, CPS, Dawn Copley, Farooqi, Hussain Malik, Manchester Police, Matthew Newton, Metropolitan Police, Munir Farooqi, North West Counter Terrorism Unit, NWCTU, Save the Family Home, Tony Porter, Zeenat Farooqi, Zulaikha Farooqi

Stop the Collective Punishment of the Farooqi Family

14 Nov

Case Background:

Munir Farooqi is a muslim who ran a “dawah” (Call to Islam) stall in a Manchester market. Two police officers intent on entrapment pretended to convert to Islam through his stall, and then continually visited him and instigated conversations and discussions regarding controversial political issues. Due to clever manipulation of the facts (falsification of evidence) by the prosecutor together with questionable testimony by the authorities, whose previous undercover activities in other police services have included lying on the stand, perjury, by testifying officers, during previous trials involving environmental activists. The unjust and illegal conduct by the officers and prosecutor led to this popular family man as well as two others (Mathew Newton and Israr Malik) being convicted of various spurious charges, clearly drummed up to justify the high cost of a wild goose chase in these times of financial austerity.

Munir Farooqi is now serving life in prison purely because of his alleged beliefs. Tony Porter, head of the so-called “counter terrorism unit”, described the following:

“This was an extremely challenging case, both to investigate and successfully prosecute at court, because we did not recover any blueprint, attack plan or endgame for these men. However, what we were able to prove was their ideology.”

And thus the first conviction for what people think (“thought crimes”), rather than what they do, was secured and begins a frightening trend of persecution for “thought crimes” in this increasingly Orwellian legislation and governance. Politicians throughout the land, from MP surgeries to Question Time to Parliamentary Reports, utter the now tired mantra “its not a war on Islam”, however the fact that three people were convicted purely because of their ideology, and not for any action, is surely an indication that the times are changing. Muslims are being targeted for their beliefs, to an extent where the police are now willing to finance an operation in which they pretend to accept Islam, only in the sole attempt to elicit incendiary information, in a climate of hate and fear, with the intent of manufacturing a “crime” which is based soley upon ones religoious or polictical belifes and not actual criminal acts or activity. The criminalisation of ones beliefs or opinions is not only a mockery of the genuine beliefs (in this case Islam) held by billions around the world, but also the nominal conventions of freedom of belief, expression and dissenting opinion upheld by democratic society. Read the rest of this entry »

5 Comments

Posted by aseerun on November 14, 2011 in Campaigns

Tags: Action Alert, CPS, Crown Prosecution Service, Farooqi, Farooqi Family, Harris Farooqi, http://www.helptheprisoners.org, http://www.savethefamilyhome.com/, Israr Malik, Letter Writing Campaign, Manchester Police, Matthew Newton, Munir Farooqi, Petition, Save the Family Home, Zulaikha Farooqi