This blog is now incorporated within the new 4WardEver website

No further entries will be added to 4WardEver UK NewsVine although all posts & pages will be retained for archive purposes

Visit: www.4wardeveruk.org

Our previous site www.4wardever.org will also be retained for archives

All enquiries to info@4wardever.org

“Keep Informed – Keep up the Struggle”

With feedback from our visitors and supporters, and a cash injection genourously given by First Stop Web Design; the next phase will include:

• A brand new look website with all accessibility features to WC3 standards
• Live news homepage displaying fresh content regularly
• FREE and easy sign-up for new subscribers to e-news
• Our blog, 4WardEver NewsVine, will be integrated with the new website for a seamless experience
• Visitors to the website will have the ability to publish their own stories
• FREE website membership for regular authors complete with personal profile
• Improved archive system for news, cases, videos and much much more
• Easily print or share our content through Facebook, DIGG IT,Stumbleupon and others

Existing subscribers to NewsVine will not need to re-subscribe – this will be handled automatically by our new database. Sign-up here if you’re not!

Phase One:
Between August & September 2009
The new website, www.4wardeveruk.org, will initially be populated with items from 4WardEver NewsVine. Some of the general information pages will be moved across from the existing website, www.4wardever.org

Phase Two:
October 2009 to February 2010
We will transfer the more detailed information from the existing website; eg, case profiles, links and resource the libraries and archive downloads.
The existing website will not be closed down but retained for archive purposes – No new material will be added however after February 2010.

WATCH OUT FOR NEWS AS THINGS PROGRESS!
The 4WardEver Volunteer Team

4WardEver… for truth, equal rights and justice!

]]> http://4wardevervoice.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/visitor-alert/feed/ 0 Administrator 4WardEver UK http://4wardevervoice.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/more-women-on-death-row-in-the-islamic-republic-of-iran/ http://4wardevervoice.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/more-women-on-death-row-in-the-islamic-republic-of-iran/#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:35:08 +0000 Zana Eka-Naphtali http://4wardevervoice.wordpress.com/?p=333 ]]>

NewsVine

Provided by
Zana Eka-Naphtali
Originally published: 19th December 2004

The Islamic Republic is increasing brutal treatment of women in Iran despite calls from the European Union and international human rights organisations to pay more attention to the appalling human rights situation. The Islam-based Judiciary, a power that like all other important organs of the regime is directly controlled by the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, has ordered the death of at least four women in the last six months, all of them on charges of prostitution or “attitude contrary to the “Charia’a”, or Islamic laws.

Hajjiyeh Esma’ilvand, a thirty years-old woman from the northern city of Jolfa, on the borders with neighbouring Azerbaijan, is the latest victim of Islamic laws, was sentenced to death on accusation of having a sexual relationship with an Azeri man.

“Her (death) sentence is approved by the Supreme Court, but there are no orders to carry out the sentence. We do not yet know if it is by stoning or hanging”, the British news agency Reuters quoted an official as having confirmed.

According to reports, Ms. Esma’ilvand was sentenced to five years imprisonment, to be followed by execution by stoning, for adultery with an unnamed man who at the time was a 17 year old minor. Although the exact date of her arrest and trial are not known, it is reported that she has been imprisoned in the town of Jolfa, in the north west of Iran, since January 2000, the London-based Amnesty International reported on the case.

The Iranian Penal Code is very specific about the manner of execution and types of stones which should be used. Article 102 states that men will be buried up to their waists and women up to their breasts for the purpose of execution by stoning. Article 104 states, with reference to the penalty for adultery, that the stones used should “not be large enough to kill the person by one or two strikes, nor should they be so small that they could not be defined as stones”.

All death sentences in Iran must be upheld by the Supreme Court before they can be carried out. In November 2004, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against Hajieh but changed the lower court’s verdict from “death by hanging” to “death by stoning”. Reports suggest that the Supreme Court has ordered that the remainder of Hajieh’s five year prison sentence be annulled so that the stoning sentence can be carried out before 21 December.

The news follows reports of a 18-year old girl, “Leyla M”, who has a mental age of eight, reportedly facing imminent execution for “morality-related” offences in Iran after being forced into prostitution by her mother as a child.

Leyla was reportedly sentenced to death on charges of “acts contrary to chastity” by controlling a brothel, having intercourse with blood relatives and giving birth to an illegitimate child. She is to be flogged before she is executed. She had apparently “confessed” to the charges.

Leyla was forced into prostitution by her mother when she was eight years old, according to the 28 November report, and was raped repeatedly thereafter. She gave birth to her first child when she was nine, and was sentenced to 100 lashes for prostitution at around the same time. At the age of 12, her family sold her to an Afghan man to become his “temporary wife”. His mother became her new pimp, “selling her body without her consent”.

Continued….

NewsVine

Story continued…

At the age of 14 she became pregnant again, and received a further 100 lashes, after which she was moved to a maternity ward to give birth to twins. After this “temporary marriage”, her family sold her again, to a 55-year-old man, married with two children, who had Leyla’s customers come to his house.

Amnesty International UK Media Director Mike Blakemore said: “This is an urgent case. Hejieh could be killed in the next five days if we do not act quickly. Our members here in the UK are writing to the Iranian authorities, imploring them to stop this brutal execution. Campaigners in Iran are also taking action. But we need more people to stand up and be counted, to tell the Iranian authorities that this is not acceptable.

A month earlier, Zhila Iazadi, 13, was sentenced to death by stoning on decision from a court in the Kurdish city of Marivan, after being found by her devout parents that she was pregnant from her 15 years-old brother. However, the Supreme Court changed the original sentence into imprisonment after Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize alerted the international community while on a tour of Scandinavian nations.

Prior to this case, Atefeh Rajabi was hanged in August in the Caspian Sea port of Neka for sex before marriage. The judge, a cleric, who hanged Atefeh himself in the city’s main square insisted she was 20, but lawyers and diplomats who saw her death certificate confirmed that she was only 16.

Amnesty International is aware of at least one case in which a sentence of execution by stoning has reportedly been issued this year. According to a report on 8 January 2004 in the Iran newspaper, a criminal court in the city of Qazvin sentenced an unnamed man to 80 lashes and 10 years’’ imprisonment to be followed by execution by stoning. It is not known whether this sentence has been carried out.

Amnesty International believes that the death penalty is the most extreme form of torture. It is a cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and a violation of the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

“It is clear that the punishment of stoning is designed to cause the victim grievous pain before leading to death. Such methods of execution specifically designed to increase the suffering of victims are of particular concern to Amnesty International, as the most extreme and cruel form of torture”, the human rights organisation said.

“One in three women around the world suffers serious violence in their lifetime, at home, in the community or in war, just because they are women”, Amnesty International said, adding that the Organisation is running a global campaign to “Stop Violence Against Women”.

The human rights organisation is calling on governments to repeal laws that permit and encourage violence against women, and on communities to challenge attitudes that allow violence to continue.

Written by Safa Haeri – December 2004

Posted by Zana Eka-Naphtali
4WardEver Volunteer Team

NewsVine

Provided by
George Coombs
28th March 2009

Raymond Gilbert is still in prison with little hope of release soon. He was convicted in December ’81 of the murder of a bookmaker, John Suffield, in Liverpool. Suffield was stabbed to death on the morning of Friday 13th March that year. Convicted at the same time as Gilbert was John Kamara, who was eventually released by the Court of Appeal in 2000 after long years maintaining his innocence.

Gilbert, a mixed race youth, had already been convicted of some crimes and gang fights in Liverpool before the murder. He was arrested on Monday 16th March 1981 and then spent 48 hours alone in police custody being interviewed at various times of day and night. During those 48 hours he was told that his alibi (the girl friend with whom he claimed he was at the relevant time) had changed her story.

Threatened with prosecution herself, she withdrew her statement that Gilbert had been with her all day and said that he had gone out on the morning of the murder.
Eventually Gilbert told the police he had murdered Suffield and signed a confession. It is clear from the police interview notes that Gilbert changed his account of what had happened several times during the 48 hours.

No evidence of any kind was found to connect Gilbert with the murder. No witness identification. No finger prints. No blood tracings despite multiple stabbings. No murder weapon. No stolen money. NOTHING AT ALL.

There were more likely suspects. Two men, angry at not being paid what they claimed was owed, threatened the night before the murder, in front of witnesses, and said they would come back the next day to sort him out. The threats were so serious that Suffield, very frightened, told his employers that evening that he wanted to work elsewhere. He was due to meet a Coral representative to arrange the handover on Friday 13th, the day of the murder. These two men were not properly investigated.

John Suffield’s father tells me that possibly on Saturday 14th, and certainly by Sunday 15th he was told by the police that all those in the betting shop on the 12th, about twenty people, were in the clear. Manifestly their alibis, especially those who had threatened Suffield, were not given the same treatment as that of Gilbert’s. Indeed it would have been impossible for such investigations to have been carried out. All of those who were in the shop on the Thursday could not even have been identified in that time. The shop was closed on the Friday and Saturday.

Once in prison, on remand, Gilbert repudiated his confession and maintained that position up to his trial. He had a very good chance of being found not guilty, if he had had a good lawyer and had the jury (the third) actually heard the evidence. But they did not.

With an expression of exasperation during the trial, Gilbert suddenly changed his plea to ‘Guilty.’ He says that he was fed up and intimidated by Kamara and his friends, who were in the same prison. Hew had falsely incriminated Kamara, as his partner in the robbery, in his written confession, after Kamara’s name had been suggested to him by the police.

He says he thought he was helping Kamara by changing his plea to guilty during the trial. In fact his change had the opposite effect. Kamara became guilty by association and was also convicted.
There seems to have been no official notice taken of what ought to be blindingly obvious and a matter of grave concern. Why would a man go on denying his guilt for nearly 29 years and refusing to go on courses when, if he had conformed and admitted responsibility for his crime, he could have been out of prison years ago?

Continued….

NewsVine

Story continued…

Everyone knows that miscarriages of justice do occur. With the best processes in the world, and we do not have them, such errors are inevitable. Moreover, though I am sure it is not the norm, there have been proven cases of police manipulation and even corruption to make an investigation of claims of innocence someone’s responsibility.

Recently the Chairman of the Merseyside Black Police Association said: “Make no mistake about it, the police were abusing the black community back then (1981)…whether this was in the form of people being assaulted or evidence being planted it all had a toxic effect.’ Note the date. The murder took place a few months before the Toxteth riots of 1981 and the trial a few months afterwards.

Gilbert is due for another Parole review in a year’s time. If favorable, that review might lead eventually to outside visits or even to open conditions in years to come. Perhaps the prison will move him from Category C from the B which he is now. But how many more years before all this happens?

What then of the Criminal Cases Review Commission which was meant to accelerate the process of Justice through the Court of Appeal? There will be another approach to the CCRC soon. My experience of Gilbert’s case, the only one in which I have had experience of the CCRC, is that it works as an additional court, with the prejudices and assumptions of other courts, but without the safeguards of a court.

In their explanation of their refusal for Gilbert in 2000 the CCRC said “The Commission is of the opinion that it is unlikely that the police gave Gilbert these details.’ ‘These details’ were about the murder scene which it was said only some one present could have known. But if a policeman thought he had the right man is it so inconceivable that a few helpful details might not be fed in to make the confession a bit more realistic?

They go on to say: ‘the decision of the Court of Appeal to quash Mr Kamara’s conviction does not have any bearing on (Gilbert’s) conviction. A two – man crime yet the release of one of them by the Court of appeal has no bearing on the likelihood that the other was also not properly convicted?

Then there is the famous or infamous milk bottle. The confession and various witness statements (not all of them – some, not given by the defence at the time, gave different stories) said that there was a struggle at the door of the bookmakers shop in order to shove the victim inside. We know that he was carrying a bottle of milk and a newspaper.

Yet the milk bottle itself was photographed standing with the newspaper, safe and sound, on the shelf in the shop after the murder. How did it get there and survive the struggle and not get smashed on the doorstep? All the CCRC has to say was that ‘there were a number of possible explanations for the movement of the bottle of milk into the shop. They provided none.
One that I can think of is that two men were waiting, already inside the shop, perhaps there overnight, ready to sort out the bookmaker as they had previously promised. The bookmaker might well have been assaulted inside the shop after he had put down his bottle of milk and paper. But whatever the explanation the survival of the milk bottle is not compatible with the story of an assault on the outside steps.

A juror even brought this to the attention of the trial Judge in 1981. His reply was: ‘It is so difficult to understand why it matters.’ Not difficult at all, unless you have already decided on the guilt of the accused.

AN EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM JOHN SUFFIELD Senior, (The victim’s father) to the Parole Board, 11th May 2006:
‘Raymond Gilbert has long protested that he is a victim of miscarriage of justice. I am aware of some of the evidence that supports his claim but I am not competent to judge the quality of the evidence. It is for that reason that I have for many years called upon those who have responsibility for examining such evidence to give their judgement. Before John Kamara’s conviction was quashed in March 2000 many of the Law Enforcement Agencies contended that John Kamara was ‘as guilty as hell’ and refused to accept the court of appeal’s judgment. Some agencies continue to hold this view despite the overwhelming evidence given in his favor to the Court of Appeal. If there is any truth in Raymond Gilbert’s claim of innocence who among us would condemn his uncooperative behavior and his reluctance to conform to the prison regime?’

I know that this is as much an appeal as a report but I have been involve din this case since 198 and my indignation increases. The Gilbert was not convicted beyond reasonable doubt is obvious. Unfortunately the jury in 1991 never had the chance of examining the contradictions in Gilbert’s repudiation or to consider the lack of any other evidence, this is an irrational change of pleas which his lawyers should have got him to reverse. Pleas of guilty made by innocent defendants do happen for a variety of reasons.

Innocent of crime? I think so. We know that Gilbert got to bed after a drinking session at about 1am on the morning of the murder but we are suppose to believe that he was up around 7a, ready with a knife and enough cord to tie someone up, prepared with his accomplice, a new one not Kamara, for a robbery which led to murder by 9 am. Why he would take a knife and cord to rob a bingo hall is not explained. According to the written confession the attack on the Bookmaker was a last minute idea when the robbers saw Suffield coming to open up his shop which was almost next door to the Bingo Hall.

Granted the elimination of his alibi (who has now disappeared) no one can say that it would have been impossible for Gilbert to have committed the crime. He would have to have had a clear head and to move very fast around Liverpool indeed. But granted the lack of any other evidence to link him to the murder that becomes incredible.

Related article:

Father wants son’s ‘killer’ freed >
23rd February 2007

Written by Bruce Kent – June 2008
London

Posted by Larry Fedja
4WardEver Volunteer Team

NewsVine

Spotted by
Larry Fedja
3rd March 2009

A new play entitled, The Hounding of David Oluwale is viewed in many quarters as one of the most important pieces of theatre on the black British experience to grace the British stage.

The Eclipse Theatre Company ’s compelling production addresses one of the most critical, but least talked about issues facing black Britons living in the UK today.

Playing at London’s Hackney Empire this month , this new show is based on Kester Aspden’s award winning book, entitled ‘Nationality Wog ‘. It tells the unsettling story of one of the earliest recorded deaths of a black service user in police custody.

The offensive title of the book, takes its name from Oluwale’s police charge sheets, where an officer at Leeds police station wrote ‘wog’ over the original entry of ‘British’, and another where ‘wog’ was typed in as the original record.

Playwrite, Oladipo Agboluaje first came across Oluwale’s story at Charing Cross station when he saw a stand at Waterstone’s selling the critically acclaimed book.

‘What caught my attention then was the misspelling of David’s surname, given the cavalier attitude with which my named is spelled, I made a mental note of the book, but decided to buy it when it came out in paperback because of this.’ Agboluajie said.

Read full article >

Larry Fedja
4WardEver UK

NewsVine

Spotted by
Larry Fedja
16th January 2009

Plans to exclude relatives, juries and the press from some inquests – on national security grounds – are being brought back by ministers.

They come in a new bill covering coroners, murder laws, witness protection and sentencing. Just months ago, similar plans were shelved. The government says secret inquests, which many oppose, would prevent intelligence details from leaking out.

The bill also proposes abolishing the provocation defence in murder cases.

Read full article >

Related & previous reports:

Straw plan for private inquests back on agenda
14th January 2009
Jack Straw, the justice secretary, will today revive his plan to hold inquests that involve aspects of national security in private without a jury when the coroners and justice bill is published.

Secret inquests plans ‘dropped’
14th October 2008
Plans which would have let ministers order inquests to be held in private on security grounds have been dropped from the Counter-Terrorism Bill.
The clause would have allowed ministers to remove juries, relatives and the public, from hearings.

Uproar at plan to hold inquests in secret
12th August 2008
Inquests that are deemed a risk to national security by the Government would be held in secret in future under proposed powers to come before the House of Lords this autumn.

NewsVine

Provided by
George Coombs
10th December 2008

On the 28th October after nearly two months on hunger strike William Johnston finally won his battle for proper medical treatment at Glenochil prison in Stirlingshire. This represents a decisive victory for all prisoners at Glenochil who have long suffered serious medical neglect and an attitude on the part of medical personnel at the jail that was openly contemptuous of the health care needs of prisoners.

On the 27th October William, who for almost the entire duration of his hunger strike had lain neglected and ignored in his cell, was summoned to the jails health care centre and informed by the manager of the centre and a senior nurse that his conflict with the medical authorities at the prison had to be resolved as a matter of urgency.

This sudden apparent eagerness to discuss William’s grievance over medical neglect had of course absolutely nothing to do with a concern over his seriously deteriorated physical condition and everything to do with inquiries made about his treatment by a local M.P. Gordon Banks, as well as the Scottish First Minister and the British Medical Council.

The recent involvement of such figures and organizations in response to a campaign on William’s behalf by friends and supporters on the outside had began to make the prison governor’s attempts to defend the medical administration at Glenochil increasingly ineffectual and unconvincing. Completely unaccustomed to such a degree of interest or interference by outside influential individuals in the treatment of a prisoner the administration at Glenochil reacted with alarm and an anxiety to defuse a situation that might potentially lead to greater scrutiny of medical maltreatment at the prison.

At the 27th October meeting with prison health care manager, William requested the attendance of the prison’s governor, Dan Gunn, and was informed that he was “on holiday”. Gunn’s initial attempts to vociferously deny the medical neglect of William Johnston in letters to William’s supporters outside soon evaporated in the face of inquiries from M.P. Gordon Banks, etc, and his silence became conspicuous as pressure on him began to increase. Instead William was invited to meet with the prison doctor, an individual notoriously compliant to the authority of junior medical staff at the prison and totally subservient to the disciplinary ethos of the prison.

William agreed on the condition that a fellow prisoner of his choice be permitted to attend and witness the meeting, which provoked the sudden and emphatic reply from the health care manager that under no circumstances would “John Bowden be allowed to attend the meeting”. William hadn’t named me as his chosen witness but I had clearly been at the forefront of the governor’s mind as someone responsible for mobolising outside support on behalf of William and using his situation to highlight medical neglect generally at the prison.

In fact, the governor had himself provoked concern about William’s situation by deliberately lying about his non-existent treatment plan and doing absolutely nothing to investigate and improve the behavior and attitude of medical staff at his prison.
Finally on the 28th October William met with the prison doctor and a proper and appropriate treatment plan for his condition was agreed on. As a result William agreed to end his hunger strike.

After almost two months on hunger strike and a sustained campaign on his behalf by Brighton Anarchist Black Cross, John McGranaghan and Dr George Coombs, William finally received the treatment his condition required. One can only wonder at his fate had he, like the majority of prisoners, been isolated and unsupported.
William’s case highlights two irrefutable truths: the callous disregard of medical staff at Glenochil prison for the health care of prisoners, and the effectiveness of genuine and committed prisoner support.

Sadly though typically the reaction of the administration at Glenochil to this case was not to reassure concerns by improving standards of medical care at the jail and the attitude of those employed to administer it, but instead to seek revenge for the embarrassment caused by it. Because of my perceived role in highlighting William Johnston’s situation my supervision level in the jail (something that will impact directly on the length of time I remain in jail) has been recommended to be increased from medium to “high risk”.

Written by John Bowden
HMP Glenochil Prison, Scotland

Posted by Zana Eka-Naphtali
4WardEver Volunteer Team

NewsVine

Spotted by
Tippa Naphtali
18th November 2008

It is wrong to execute an innocent man. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit will now consider whether it is constitutional. Troy Anthony Davis, convicted of murder, is asking the courts to hear evidence that key government witnesses have repudiated their testimony against him. But so far the courts have decided that, while he may be innocent, procedural rules prevent them from taking a second look. For 17 years, Troy Davis has been on Georgia’s death row for murdering a police officer. As the director of the FBI under Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton, and as a former federal judge, I believe that there is no more serious offense than the murder of a police officer. However, crucial unanswered questions surround claims of Davis’ responsibility for this terrible crime, and I believe that the execution should not go forward until the courts address them and determine whether he is in fact guilty.

Police never found a murder weapon. Seven of the nine nonpolice witnesses recanted or changed their original testimony. Some of these witnesses say police pressed them to implicate Davis. Some also point to another man, one of the two witnesses who continue to implicate Davis, as the real murderer.

Because these revelations came after Davis was convicted, court rules have prevented a full hearing on Davis’ claim of innocence. These rules, put in place to prevent endless appeals by the guilty, may also cut off a lifeline to the innocent.

These rules bar appeals courts from hearing even the most important of claims if the defendant did not properly raise them at trial. This is true even if the failure to raise them was not caused by the defendant. This was the situation in Davis’ case; his lawyers were overworked and underpaid public defenders who admit they were unable to investigate the facts and provide a comprehensive defense.

Read full article >

Tippa Naphtali
4WardEver UK

NewsVine

Spotted by
Tippa Naphtali
7th December 2008

In 2001, four Pakistani Britons, Ruhal Ahmed, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul and another friend, Monir, travel to Pakistan for a wedding and in a surge of idealism, decide to see the situation of war torn Afganistan which is being bombed by the American forces in retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Once there, with the loss of Monir in the wartime chaos, they are captured by Northern Alliance fighters. They are then handed them over the American forces who transport them to the prison camps at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba.

What follows is three years of relentless imprisonment, interrogations and torture to make them submit to blatantly wrong confessions to being terrorists. In the midst of this abuse, the three struggle to keep their spirits up in that face of this grave injustice.

Tippa Naphtali
4WardEver UK