Reprieve delivers justice and saves lives, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.
Reprieve delivers justice and saves lives, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.
Younous Chekkouri is a Moroccan national who has spent eight agonizing years in Guantánamo Bay. He is in urgent need of assistance. Fearing torture and persecution if returned to Morocco, he desperately needs a new home, which is why Reprieve is calling on European governments to offer him protection.
Younous was seized in 2001 as he fled war torn Afghanistan. Like many Arabs seeking refuge in Pakistan at that time, he was sold by Pakistani authorities to the U.S. for a bounty. He spent five months in the brutal, U.S.-operated prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan before being ...
I will never forget the day I watched Ismail hug his brother in Somaliland after two and a half years in Guantánamo.
Before his unlawful detention, Ismail played an integral role in Somali society as an English teacher, a community organizer, and a skilled mediator. His people suffered a great loss when he was seized, and I am delighted they have him again. He has begun resuming his good works already.
In a majority vote of 7-2 the US Supreme Court sitting in Washington last week upheld the death sentence handed down against Holly Wood - a man with the IQ of a seven-year-old child.
Wood was convicted of murdering his former girlfriend, Ruby Lois Gosha, by a court in Alabama in 1993. He was represented during his murder trial by three court-appointed attorneys, including one fresh out of law school and with no experience on a capital case. The fledgling lawyer took charge of the case at the sentencing phase after Wood had been found guilty and jurors were deciding if ...
On the 14th of January the President of Mongolia, Tsakhia Elbegdorj, commuted all death sentences to 30 year prison terms. He has also called for a moratorium on the death penalty with a view to it eventually being abolished as a form of punishment. This is a welcome development on a continent where capital punishment remains prevalent.
Mr. Elbegdorj has showed opposition for the death penalty throughout his term in office. But he has now raised a seldom-considered aspect of the issue.
The arguments most often used to oppose the death penalty usually relate to the cost, violations of the ...
Anna Perera’s novel Guantánamo Boy vividly depicts the horrors behind the bars of the detention facilities in Cuba – horrors that should by now be consigned to history. Sadly, they are as real as ever.
This Friday marks the first anniversary of President Obama’s failure to deliver on his promise of closing Guantanamo. Human rights campaigners around the world are left with a sense of hopelessness; no-one wants to believe that President Obama has let them down.
The story for Guantánamo Boy was conceived at a human rights benefit event in 2006 where Clive Stafford Smith spoke about Guantánamo ...
California state officials have proposed new lethal injection procedures, which if adopted, could bring to an end the four-year moratorium and result in executions being resumed by the end of the year.
Imagine this scenario:
In one state in the US 700 people languish in cells for years and often decades. Isolated from friends and family, they are constantly facing the prospect of death.
Four years ago a judge in this state ruled that the lethal injection used to kill its citizens is unconstitutional because the pain inflicted is so immense its use constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
This state ...
"To all freedom-loving people wherever they may live." A Conversation with the Mother of Farzad Kamangar, a Kurdish Activist on Death Row.
On 25 February 2008, the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Farzad Kamangar to death on charges of "endangering national security" and "enmity against God" (moharebe). The death penalty was confirmed by the Supreme Court on 11 July.
Farzad Kamangar, Iranian teacher, member of teacher union and human rights activist was arrested in July 2006 and under severe torture by the prison authorities on different occasions during his detention, they forced him to confess to charges against himself. For several ...
The execution of fifty three year old Akmal Shaikh has touched the lives of many in the United Kingdom. Up until the official announcement of his execution at 10.30am on the 29th December, many held on to the belief that clemency would be granted.
Unfortunately this would not be the case and a family in the North of London were left devastated by the loss of a man who was a father, brother, cousin and friend.
On Sunday last I witnessed a group of peaceful protestors gathered outside the Chinese Embassy to pay respect to Mr. Shaikh. Many of ...
On January 19 the Kansas legislature will hold four days of hearings to establish whether or not to repeal the death penalty. Should this bill pass Kansas will become the third state in as many years to abolish capital punishment.
"What’s the matter with Kansas?" So asked Thomas Frank in his 2004 lament over the rise of conservatism in a state previously known as a bastion of liberalism. Sadly, the new climate also brought legislative support for capital punishment.
Kansas had originally abolished the death penalty on January 30th 1907, subsequently celebrated as Abolition Day, but the legislature re-introduced ...
I’ve just got back from Chad where I was working with Mohamed el Gharani, who was released from Guantanamo in June. Mohamed was just 14 when he was taken to the prison, and while he is delighted to be free, sadly things haven’t been easy for him since he got out.
His family are in Saudi Arabia, and he hasn’t been able to see them since his release. The government of Chad haven’t given him a passport yet, and he’s been left on his own in a strange country as he comes to terms with ...
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