RSS

Tag Archives: MI5

CagePrisoners: What to do When Profiled and Harassed by Law Enforcement

At Cageprisoners we receive a number of calls each week complaining about the treatment that Muslims are receiving by various agencies. It is time to redress the balance by informing the public of their rights.

Since the start of the War on Terror, there has been consistent harassment of the Muslim community – and several non-Muslims too – by security agencies in the UK and abroad. There are many who will tell stories of how they were questioned by MI5, MI6, Special Branch and even the SAS while they were being tortured and mistreated by various security agencies abroad. Unfortunately in those circumstances, those people had absolutely no ability to exercise their rights in any way – for those who were complicit in their abuse, should have been the ones to protect them.

For those who were detained abroad, the fear of their situation was used by the security agencies in order to attempt to coerce them into working for the authorities. Those British citizens and residents who eventually ended up in Guantanamo Bay, at some point were offered work opportunities with the UK security agencies in order to save them from their situation – however they all chose to maintain their dignity by not allowing themselves to be subjected to such bribes.

In the UK, there are various forms of police and security harassment taking place against the Muslim community. Poor intelligence gathering and a system of profiling (which is actually stereotyping – treating all Muslims as if they are terrorist suspects) has resulted in the most serious breaches of human rights. We should never forget that when the police murdered Jean Charles de Menezes, they assumed they were killing a Muslim.

At Cageprisoners we receive a number of calls each week complaining about the treatment that Muslims are receiving by various agencies. It is time to redress the balance by informing the public of their rights. There is no reason why anyone should feel intimidated into cooperating with the security agencies beyond what the law requires, particularly when they attempt to use powers beyond what is acceptable. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

Posted by aseerun on May 8, 2012 in News Items

Tags: Britain, http://www.cageprisoners.com, illegal detention, Metropolitan Police, MI5, profiling, shady informants, Stop and Search, unreasonable search and seizure

Abu Qatada A Step Closer to Freedom (But Still a Prisoner of the UK System)

09 Feb

The fifty-one year old Omar Othman, Abu Qatada al-Filistini, a Palestinian refugee with Jordanian nationality has spent the last six years in various maximum security prisons for Category A offenders. Since his original detention in October 2002, every attempt to deport him to Jordan has been frustrated. The law lords ruled three years ago that he could be sent back but the Strasbourg decision overturned that ruling.

The Home Office clashed openly with judges on Monday when it criticised a decision to free on bail, Abu Qatada, who is accused of posing a grave threat to British national security. The decision by Mr Justice Mitting will see Abu Qatada, once described as Osama bin Laden’s righthand man in Europe, walk out of Long Lartin maximum security prison in Worcestershire after more than six and a half years in detention without trial – the longest period in modern times [see footnote].

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) has imposed some of the most draconian bail conditions seen since 9/11, including a twenty-two hour curfew, but this did little to assuage the anger of the Home Office ministers or politicians from all parties at the decision.

The clash takes the battle between politicians and the judiciary into new territory as Abu Qatada is a major international terror suspect. He was first detained without trial in Britain under the quashed Belmarsh regime nearly a decade ago, in October 2002.

The decision taken by the high court judge at SIAC follows the ruling by the European court of human rights that he could not be deported toJordan because he would face a “flagrant denial of justice” – a retrial based on evidence obtained through torture. Abu Qatada had been detained under immigration laws for the past six and half years pending his deportation to Jordan. Read the rest of this entry »

African Muslims rendered to Uganda – Home to Infamous JATT

27 Jun

The headquarters of JATT is near the top of Kololo Hill in a Kampala suburb. Over the past two years, more than 100 people have been unlawfully detained there.

Mohamed Ali Mohamed is a Muslim and resident of Nairobi, Kenya. He is facing extradition to Uganda by order of Frederick Ruhindi , the Attorney General of Uganda and also the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, as sworn by Ndungutse Ngaruye John a Ugandan police officer.

Mohamed Ali Mohamed last visited Ugandain 2009,MbaleTownto see a close relative that was studying there. Ali Mohamed was arrested onthe 11th January 2011inTanga,Tanzania. On the 12th January 2011Ali Mohamed was transferred to Dar Es Salaamand detained for a month without being presented to any court of law.

During this time Ali Mohamed was subjected to extraordinarily long interrogations by state security officers from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania as well as a Caucasian agent of the name ‘Erick’ from Washington, USA.

He was made to falsely confess that he was part of the Kampala bombings on the 11th July 2010 and was coerced to state this otherwise he would face torture, be killed and his friends and relatives including his pregnant wife, also detained, would not be released but face the same treatment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Binyam Muhammad: February 23, 2009

23 Feb

I hope you will understand that after everything I have been through I am neither physically nor mentally capable of facing the media on the moment of my arrival back to Britain.

It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways – all orchestrated by the United States government

Please forgive me if I make a simple statement through my lawyer. I hope to be able to do better in days to come, when I am on the road to recovery.

I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares. Before this ordeal, “torture” was an abstract word to me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim.

It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways – all orchestrated by the United States government.

While I want to recover, and put it all as far in my past as I can, I also know I have an obligation to the people who still remain in those torture chambers.

My own despair was greatest when I thought that everyone had abandoned me. I have a duty to make sure that nobody else is forgotten.

I am grateful that in the end I was not simply left to my fate. I am grateful to my lawyers and other staff at Reprieve, and to Lt Col Yvonne Bradley, who fought for my freedom.

I am grateful to the members of the British Foreign Office who worked for my release. And I want to thank people around Britain who wrote to me in Guantanamo Bay to keep my spirits up, as well as to the members of the media who tried to make sure that the world knew what was going on.

I know I would not be home in Britain today if it were not for everyone’s support. Indeed, I might not be alive at all.

I wish I could say that it is all over, but it is not. There are still 241 Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo.

Many have long since been cleared even by the US military, yet cannot go anywhere as they face persecution. For example, Ahmed bel Bacha lived here in Britain, and desperately needs a home.

‘Horrors’

Then there are thousands of other prisoners held by the US elsewhere around the world, with no charges, and without access to their families.

And I have to say, more in sadness than in anger, that many have been complicit in my own horrors over the past seven years.

For myself, the very worst moment came when I realised in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions and materials from British intelligence.

I had met with British intelligence in Pakistan. I had been open with them. Yet the very people who I had hoped would come to my rescue, I later realised, had allied themselves with my abusers.

I am not asking for vengeance; only that the truth should be made known, so that nobody in the future should have to endure what I have endured.