UK

Refugee Week - 100% British

Emerson — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:03:43 +0100

This tide of anti-Muslim hatred is a threat to us all

Niluccio — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:15:51 +0000

If young British Muslims had any doubts that they are singled out for special treatment in the land of their birth, the punishments being meted out to those who took part in last year's London demonstrations against Israel's war on Gaza will have dispelled them.

Source: This tide of anti-Muslim hatred is a threat to us all

Youth for Human Rights International #14 Scientology Front Group

JayN — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:25:25 +0000

Born Free

ciara leeming — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:41:33 +0000

Hand shake from the Dali Lama to the Chinese Embassy

Radfax — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:33:38 +0100

Torture and those pesky parliamentarians

Niluccio — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:49:53 +0100

Listen to Ivan Lewis stonewalling on the Today programme (8.10 interview) and you get the distinct impression that the government has … how can I put this, got something to hide.

Source: Torture and those pesky parliamentarians

Leading article: A depressingly predictable attack on asylum-seekers - Leading Articles, Opinion - The Independent

thedharmablues — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:42:07 +0100

It is no secret that a public spending crunch is on the way. And it seems one target for cuts has already been identified: asylum-seekers' benefits. As we report today, the UK Border Agency proposes to reduce the weekly subsistence payments to those waiting for a verdict on their asylum application from £42.16 to £35.13.

That asylum-seekers would be the first to suffer as a result of spending cuts was depressingly predictable. Refugees

Source: Leading article: A depressingly predictable attack on asylum-seekers - Leading Articles, Opinion - The Independent

Know your enemy

Niluccio — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:28:46 +0100

Imagine, for a moment, that Neil Lewington, who is on trial at the Old Bailey for preparing for a “campaign of terrorism” using tennis-ball bombs, was a British Muslim. The story would be splashed across the front page of every newspaper in Britain, and Sky News would be rolling a loop of images of his scowling, bearded, dark face.

Source: Know your enemy

Revealed – the secret torture evidence MI5 tried to suppress

Niluccio — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:45:18 +0100

The true depth of British involvement in the torture of terrorism suspects overseas and the manner in which that complicity is concealed behind a cloak of courtroom secrecy was laid bare last night when David Davis MP detailed the way in which one counter-terrorism operation led directly to a man suffering brutal mistreatment.

Source: Revealed – the secret torture evidence MI5 tried to suppress

Terror suspect wins battle to leave Britain

Niluccio — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:50:19 +0100

A terror suspect who has spent the past eight years first in jail and then under a control order that prevented him leading a normal life has won his battle to be allowed to leave Britain.

Source: Terror suspect wins battle to leave Britain

Exclusive: How MI5 blackmails British Muslims

Niluccio — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:04:26 +0100

Five Muslim community workers have accused MI5 of waging a campaign of blackmail and harassment in an attempt to recruit them as informants.

The men claim they were given a choice of working for the Security Service or face detention and harassment in the UK and overseas.

Source: Exclusive: How MI5 blackmails British Muslims

Rape and the CPS

Niluccio — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:02:58 +0100

Sir, As superintending minister for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) I keenly feel any criticism that prosecutors are failing rape victims (“Rape audit to find out why so few win justice”, May 14).

Source: Rape and the CPS

‘Make sure you say that you were treated properly’

Niluccio — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:45:41 +0100

Seven years ago now, in January 2002, came the first shocking images of human beings in rows in aircraft, hooded and shackled for transportation across the Atlantic, much as other human beings had been carried in slave ships four hundred years earlier.

Source: ‘Make sure you say that you were treated properly’

Police probe 29 UK torture cases

Niluccio — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 09:33:48 +0100

Scotland Yard is examining allegations that terrorism suspects, including British citizens, were tortured with the complicity of MI5 and MI6 officers. The Metropolitan Police has received detailed evidence relating to the abuse of detainees involving UK intelligence agents, raising the possibility that its criminal inquiry into the alleged mistreatment of Guantánamo detainee Binyam Mohamed could be widened to include more than two dozen torture cases.

Source: Police probe 29 UK torture cases

Torture inquiry reveals 15 new cases

Niluccio — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:04:47 +0000

Inquiries have revealed British security and intelligence officers have raised concerns about the treatment of several detainees, interviewed while in US custody abroad.

Source: Torture inquiry reveals 15 new cases

Claims of British collusion in torture spread to Egypt

Niluccio — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:11:42 +0000

Allegations of British collusion in torture have widened to Egypt, where a young British man says he suffered appalling mistreatment during a week of illegal detention while being interrogated on the basis of information that he says can only have come from the UK.

Source: Claims of British collusion in torture spread to Egypt

The real story of Britain's most famous hangman

Niluccio — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:47:13 +0000

On 3 January 1956, Albert Pierrepoint arrived at Strangeways prison in Manchester to carry out the execution of Thomas Bancroft, a convicted murderer, in what would have been the 436th death sentence to be executed by Britain's most prolific hangman. It proved to be his last engagement as the undisputed master of the gallows.

Source: The real story of Britain's most famous hangman

British complicity in US 'rendition'

Niluccio — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:59:59 +0000

Amnesty has documented that on at least one other occasion UK forces in Iraq were involved in the case of a foreign prisoner detained by US forces and flown out of Iraq for interrogation ("We did hand over terror suspects for rendition, Hutton admits", 27 February).

Source: British complicity in US 'rendition'

UN criticises UK 'rendition role'

Niluccio — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:10:18 +0000

Britain has been accused of taking part in US "renditions" of terror suspects in a United Nations report.

UN Special Rapporteur Martin Scheinin said he was "deeply troubled" at the US system of rendition, secret detention and practices violating torture bans.

But he said it was only possible with the collaboration of allies including the UK, Pakistan, Indonesia and Kenya.

Source: UN criticises UK 'rendition role'

CPS to reconsider Eddie Gilfoyle murder conviction after police notes uncovered

Niluccio — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:56:07 +0000

Merseyside Police today called in the Crown Prosecution Service after The Times published notes which cast doubt on the conviction of Eddie Gilfoyle, who was jailed for life for murdering his heavily pregnant wife, Paula, in 1993.

Source: CPS to reconsider Eddie Gilfoyle murder conviction after police notes uncovered

Brown in UK naval offer for Gaza

Niluccio — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:32:52 +0000

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered British naval resources to help monitor events in the Gaza conflict and stop weapons being smuggled in.

He wants to help ensure protection and monitoring of the crossings into Gaza.

Source: Brown in UK naval offer for Gaza

Gaza protesters raid arms factory

Niluccio — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:28:59 +0000

Seven men and two women have been arrested after a group of protesters attacked an arms factory in Sussex.

EDO MBM Technology in Moulsecombe was broken into overnight by the Smash EDO group in response to the action by the Israeli military in Gaza.

Protesters say weapons components made at the site are used by Israeli aircraft on bombing missions.

Source: Gaza protesters raid arms factory

MPS seek to censor the media

StevieB — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:34:59 +0000

Britain's security agencies and police would be given unprecedented and legally binding powers to ban the media from reporting matters of national security, under proposals being discussed in Whitehall.

The Intelligence and Security Committee... wants to press ministers to introduce legislation that would prevent news outlets from reporting stories deemed by the Government to be against the interests of national security.

Source: MPS seek to censor the media

Labour's stitch-up will deny women fundamental rights

Niluccio — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:54:40 +0100

When pro-choice demonstrators gather outside parliament today, they really will have cause to protest. In an extraordinary stitch-up, the government has cheated its way out of the abortion debate that was scheduled to be part of tomorrow's human fertilisation and embryology bill. Campaigners are blistering with fury that procedural sleight of hand will deny the chance to reform the forty-year old abortion act.

Source: Labour's stitch-up will deny women fundamental rights

Britain's last hangman kept 'diaries of death'

Niluccio — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:44:37 +0100

Harry Allen, who oversaw dozens of executions between 1941 and 1964, kept a precise log of prisoners and how they died.

His matter-of-fact journal recorded details of each prisoner's age, weight, height and his calculations of how long the rope needed to be to generate the speed required to ensure a swift death.

Referring to one hanging, Allen suggested that, with hindsight, the rope had been too short.

He noted: "Very good job but should have had another two or three inches - very strong."

Allen was the chief executioner at 29 hangings and assisted at 53 others in London, Manchester and Leeds.

Source: Britain's last hangman kept 'diaries of death'

The massacre that haunts Slovenia

Niall — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:17:00 +0100

At the war's end, British troops lured 12,000 unarmed Slovenians into train wagons and sent them to their deaths. The massacre haunts a witness who says Britain should at last own up

Source: The massacre that haunts Slovenia

'They are sending me to my death' - Jojo Yakob loses his appeal to stay in Scotland - The Scotsman

Fulup — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:23:52 +0100

"I was devastated when my lawyer told me the news. I am so upset. The last three years have been very stressful for me."

Source: 'They are sending me to my death' - Jojo Yakob loses his appeal to stay in Scotland - The Scotsman

Case study: 'For many imams speaking against rape is embarrassing'

Niluccio — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:51:51 +0100

It wasn't love that brought Aliya and Hassan together, but a couple of childhood photos he'd seen of her. For Hassan, Aliyah - then a 20-year-old from Manchester - was a ticket out of Pakistan to join his brothers in England in the hope of kick-starting a lucrative career in medicine.

Source: Case study: 'For many imams speaking against rape is embarrassing'

Outrage at 'cynical' manipulation of scheme to resettle Iraqi aides

Niluccio — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:22:47 +0100

A scheme to help Iraqi interpreters was devised to maintain the Government's reputation and “respond to perceptions” that it had a moral obligation to its local staff, The Times has learnt.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been accused of “dreadful cynicism” over its handling of the issue, after explosive internal documents revealed that officials had decided they could do “little to protect them from attacks outside the workplace”.

Source: Outrage at 'cynical' manipulation of scheme to resettle Iraqi aides

Immigrants' centre set up to keep children out of detention to shut

Niluccio — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:46:51 +0100

The Home Office is abandoning a programme to accommodate children and their families outside immigration detention centres, it emerged last night.

Millbank, a former old people's home in Ashford, Kent, was converted into a home for asylum-seeker families as part of an "alternative to detention" government pilot last year.

The project was aimed at keeping children in local schools while encouraging their families - who have exhausted their asylum appeals - to voluntarily return home.

However, the Guardian has learned that after almost a year in operation - during which it was supposed to accommodate up to 170 people a day - Millbank is empty.

Source: Immigrants' centre set up to keep children out of detention to shut