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  1. Clara Gutteridge BW

    MI6 offers up a scapegoat for the government's crimes

    Clara Gutteridge on 11 September 2009

    Ministers, not low-ranking MI6 officers, should be in the dock over Britain's complicity in torture.

    The foreign secretary, David Miliband, today admitted that MI6 had referred "a case" to the attorney general, involving complicity in torture by one of its agents operating abroad. In a letter to the shadow foreign secretary, Miliband reveals little else, except that the torture happened in an undisclosed foreign country; and unlike the tranche of recent cases where MI5 agents have been accused of complicity in torture, the victim in this case was not a UK national, or a UK resident.

    There are many ...

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  2. Clara Gutteridge BW

    Why no lawyers at Bagram?

    Clara Gutteridge on 11 September 2009

    The Obama Administration has announced it is to impose a military review process at Bagram, but prisoners are still denied lawyers.

    The vast prison at Bagram Airbase is Guantanamo's lesser-known, more evil twin. As Guantanamo has dwindled, Bagram has grown, and this trend looks set to continue: the US is in the process of building a brand-new state-of-the-art extension that will hold over 1,000 prisoners.

    Conditions in Bagram are terrible - the prison is in a crumbling, former Soviet factory where many prisoners are held basically incommunicado, with no access to lawyers. Abuse is rampant, and there is even ...

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  3. Linda Carty

    Urgent appeal for Linda Carty

    Laura Stebbing on 10 September 2009

    Time is running out for British grandmother Linda Carty who is on death row in Texas: we need extra funds to help us fight for her life in these last crucial months.

    Please help us to help Linda Carty by making a donation to Reprieve. We need to raise £15 000 for Linda’s case.

    Reprieve is providing Linda with legal and investigative assistance in a race against the clock to save her life. We are also doing everything we can to bring pressure to bear on the British Government to act now to save Linda. We expect our costs ...

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  4. Katherine O'Shea BW

    Read the transcript of Linda Carty's speech to Trafalgar Square

    Katherine O'Shea on 10 September 2009

    Recorded this week in Mountain View Unit, the prison where Linda Carty is being held on death row, this speech will be broadcast on a loop in Trafalgar Square at 10am this morning. Linda tells her story and pleads with the British people to help save her life.

    You can also listen to the speech and help us help Linda by contributing to our urgent appeal for Linda Carty.

    Hello Trafalgar Square! My name is Linda Carty and I’m speaking to you from Death Row in Texas, in the United States.

    It is everybody’s worst nightmare to be ...

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  5. Rehan Zaman

    Naheem Hussain and Rehan Zaman need your help – please sign our petition

    Marc Callcutt on 09 September 2009

    Today Reprieve are asking everybody that visits this page to spare two minutes to sign this petition on the Downing Street website, asking that Gordon Brown personally intervene in the case of Naheem Hussain and Rehan Zaman.

    Five years ago, Naheem and Rehan were accused of the murder of two of their family members as a result of a dispute about the family land. They were arrested and taken to Dadyal Police Station, where they were tortured for two weeks, at which point they felt they had no choice but to sign confessions.

    The torture they were subjected to was ...

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  6. Clara Gutteridge BW

    The prisoner and the President: can Somalia's leader help free Ismail Mahmoud Muhamed from Guantánamo?

    Clara Gutteridge on 04 September 2009

    Last week, Cori blogged about our trip to Nairobi to meet President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. We were there to talk about our Guantánamo client Ismail Mahmoud Muhamed who is a close associate of the President, yet still languishing in Guantánamo Bay.

    Our meeting went well, and we were pleased to see the following article appear in Africa Confidential, Volume 50 no 17:

    Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) will ask the United States to release a Somali terrorist suspect from Guantánamo Bay. Ismail Mahmoud Mohamed was a friend of and former advisor to President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and they worked ...

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  7. Ahmed Ghappour BW

    Abuse of Shaker Aamer continues...

    Ahmed Ghappour on 04 September 2009

    On Wednesday July 22nd 2009 Shaker Aamer was supposed to see his lawyer. Instead, he was beaten by six soldiers clad in riot gear, stripped down with a pair of heavy duty shears, and left to wallow under a cold air conditioning vent.

    Shaker's attorney, Brent Mickum, said that Shaker has been "undergoing regular torture from beatings to food and sleep deprivation since his arrival in Guantanamo.

    Though at first glance, Shaker does not seem like an ideal candidate for systematic torture and abuse. A UK resident whose wife and four children are British nationals, he is educated, a ...

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  8. Lizzie O'Shea

    Lawyers fight for Linda Carty's life in New Orleans

    Lizzie O'Shea on 04 September 2009

    Today the Fifth Circuit heard a last-ditch appeal by Linda Carty, a British grandmother who is currently in on death row in Texas after being convicted of murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection on the basis of a catastrophically flawed trial.

    Linda was represented pro bono by Michael Goldberg at Baker Botts and you can listen to the arguments from the hearing here.

    The defence argued that Linda's trial lawyer, Jerry Guerinot, failed to provide her with effective assistance, denying her access to a fair trial at the guilt/innocence stage. This includes failing to interview witnesses ...

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  9. Generic - Hunger Strike Chair

    Harming not healing

    Emma Draper on 03 September 2009

    A new report by Physicians for Human Rights calls for health professionals involved in torture to face investigation for unprofessional and criminal conduct.

    In the wake of the release of the CIA Inspector General's report, which revealed the intelligence service's use of 'enhanced interrogation' techniques including prolonged diapering, 'walling' (the detainee is placed in a neck collar which is then used to slam him against a wall) and confinement in a box, Physicians for Human Rights have published a report entitled 'Aiding Torture'.

    It details the profound complicity of health professionals in the torture of terror suspects at ...

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  10. Chris Chang BW

    Free - if Norway wants it...

    Chris Chang on 03 September 2009

    We feel like it's a great time to be part of the debate about whether Norway should offer a home to ex-prisoners like Sherif el Mashad, and our project is getting lots of attention in the Norwegian press (although sadly we can't understand it!)

    See an example below, an article from the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.

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