Reprieve delivers justice and saves lives, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.
Reprieve delivers justice and saves lives, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.
When I first went to see Ahmed Errachidi (right) in early 2005, the soldiers at Guantánamo warned me that he was one of the very worst: a bitter terrorist; Osama bin Laden's general, his main man. I was intrigued.
We brought the original litigation against the lawlessness of Guantánamo Bay in February 2002, shortly after it opened for its sordid business. By mid-2004, the Supreme Court had ordered that lawyers be allowed access, and I was able to visit for the first time. Soon, I was requested to represent Ahmed.
He didn't seem bitter. He laughed ...
A couple of months ago, on 18 June 2011, Ruyati binti Sapubi, an Indonesian migrant worker, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia after being convicted of murdering her Saudi employer. Riyadh carried out the execution by sword without notifying the Indonesian Embassy, denying it the chance to take action.
Upon hearing of the unexpected beheading, the Indonesian public fumed with rage prompting the government to recall its ambassador to Saudi Arabia in protest.
Addressing the House of Representatives on 20 June, Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa proclaimed:
“To save hundreds of Indonesian migrant workers who are facing the death penalty, the ...
A new study gives us the truest picture yet – in contrast to the CIA's own account – of drones' grim toll of 'collateral damage'
I would not deny that the pilotless plane, flying bomb, or whatever its correct name may be, is an exceptionally unpleasant thing, because, unlike most other projectiles, it gives you time to think. What is your first reaction when you hear that droning, zooming noise? Inevitably, it is a hope that the noise won't stop. You want to hear the bomb pass safely overhead and die away into the distance …
Let’s start with this week’s award for absurd reasoning in a death penalty case. It goes to Nanette K. Laughrey, United States District Court Judge for the Western District of Missouri. She wins because a few days ago she dismissed a challenge to lethal injection procedures in Missouri. Why? Because “Plaintiffs present merely an abstract injury that fails to meet the threshold showing for an injury in fact”. I am sure that it will be of great comfort to the prisoners who launched the challenge that the needle pumping lethal chemicals into their bodies is now considered “abstract ...
How did you spend your twenties? (Or, if you are younger, how do you hope to be spending them?)
I graduated from university, started my first job as a trainee lawyer, and plunged myself into London’s social life. And I grew up: I bought my own flat, did human rights work in India and Rwanda, and I met my husband.
Get a degree, start a career, get a place to live, find a partner – it’s what many people hope to get out of their twenties. It’s certainly what Naheem Hussain and Rehan Zaman, two young men from ...
Reprieve announced yesterday that we would not be taking part in the government's inquiry into collusion in torture and rendition by British security services.
Along with a coalition of 10 leading human rights organisations, including Amnesty, Liberty and Human Rights Watch, we've decided that the way the detainee inquiry is set up means that it will simply not be able to get to the bottom of the allegations that our country has been involved in some of the horrific abuses that have been taking place in the name of the "war on terror".
Given the near total lack ...
There can be few worse imagined places in the world than that of African Death Row.
In a continent that is plagued by insurmountable suffering through the lack for the most basic and necessary needs for survival, food and water, one can scarcely attempt to visualise what an African prison must be like, let alone Death Row.
Institutional violence, rape and starvation are the primary realities in practically every part of African prison life. If you tried to conduct a league table for the country with the worst prisons you wouldn’t get anywhere. Angola, Libya or maybe South Africa ...
Just sitting here at 3am about to leave for the airport thinking about the last few weeks here in Texas.
The Reprieve house is all packed up, Sophie and Annie have left for opposite corners of the United States and I will fly off in a couple of hours.
The work we did here did not save Mark Stroman's life and that is sad and upsetting and makes me angry. Mark was failed by the system, as was his victim, the ever amazing Rais Bhuiyan. Not one judge stood up for Rais' civil rights and not one judge stood ...
What makes someone a hero? Judging by the heroes in our popular culture, such as Rambo, General Schwarzkopf or even Superman, the answer would seem to be that a hero is someone who is stronger than everyone else, who obliterates all of his enemies through violence, and who would never just take an insult, or injury to a loved one, without exacting revenge.
This is no doubt the kind of hero Mark Ströman tried to be when he took to the convenience stores in his area to kill Arabs in retaliation for 9/11 (although I should add that ...
I have now been with Reprieve for well over a year. In that time, the death penalty team, which I have the privilege to work with, has assisted nearly 100 prisoners facing execution around the world – our current caseload is nearly 80.
It may therefore come as a surprise to you that, until last night, when Mark Ströman was executed in Texas at around 3am UK time, I managed to avoid ever having to deal with one of the prisoners we assist actually being executed. (Our last execution before last night’s was that of Akmal Shaikh in China ...
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