Belmarsh, control orders, deportation and extradition

There are times when politeness fails, and this, sadly, is one of them. On Wednesday, Britain’s Law Lords shamelessly discarded Britain’s adherence to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by ruling that Omar Mahmoud Othman (commonly known as Abu Qatada) can be deported to Jordan, and that two other men — known only as […]

It doesn’t take much investigation to discover that Algeria has a bleak human rights record, which is one of the reasons that, until last week, when 49-year old Mustafa Hamlili and 28-year old Abdul Raham Houari were freed from Guantánamo, no Algerian prisoners had been repatriated. This was in spite of the fact that at […]

On Monday June 16, the human rights organization Cageprisoners and Together, a charity that supports people with mental health needs, are launching an exhibition devoted to works of art created by prisoners in the UK who are imprisoned without charge or trial as part of Britain’s shameful contribution to the post-9/11 flight from domestic and […]

Blinded by the apparent allure of a tall, thin woman from France, Britain’s press completely ignored the forcible deportation, on Thursday, of 60 Iraqi Kurds, who were transported back to a decidedly uncertain future on a German plane from a UK airport. Each of the 60 “failed asylum seekers,” as they are officially known, was […]

It’s always a sure sign that something has gone horribly wrong when Tory politicians can only be persuaded with extreme reluctance to support anti-terror measures pursued by the Labour government. But this is exactly what happened on Thursday, when Conservative MPs joined with the government’s own MPs to extend until March 2009 the legislation authorizing […]

Imagine being picked up by the police, taken to a maximum security prison, and held for years –- indefinitely, for all you know –- without being told what it is that you’re supposed to have done. Sounds familiar? If you substitute “soldiers” for “the police,” it sounds like Guantánamo, or Bagram, or Abu Ghraib. But […]

The story of Hedi Boudhiba, a 46-year old Tunisian, who has been abandoned in Spain after being extradited from the UK and cleared of all charges against him in the Spanish National Court, calls into doubt the quality of British and pan-European intelligence about activities related to terrorism, and also raises uncomfortable questions about the […]

In a resounding break with the policies of Tony Blair, the new British government, led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has announced that it has requested the return of five British residents in Guantánamo: Shaker Aamer, Jamil El-Banna, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed (aka al-Habashi) and Abdulnour Sameur. According to a Press Association report, “The Foreign […]