Reprieve delivers justice and saves lives, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.
Reprieve delivers justice and saves lives, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.
On August 12, 1949, in the aftermath of one of the most devastating conflicts the world had ever seen, something extraordinary happened.
Representatives of 64 countries, some of which had been at war with each other just four years earlier, came together in Geneva and signed an international agreement to protect those caught in conflict.
The four Geneva Conventions have become the foundation of today's laws of war, providing protection for wounded members of armed forces in the field and at sea, prisoners of war and civilians.
More countries have signed up to the Conventions than there are member ...
Reprieve yesterday announced litigation against the British Government over the cover-up of the truth about the illegal rendition to Afghanistan of two prisoners captured by the British in Iraq in 2004.
In early 2004, the British arrested two men in Iraq. The British handed them over to the Americans, and were told that they would be rendered to Bagram. This illegal rendition happened, without UK protest, around June 2004.
Since that time, the two men have been held beyond the rule of law and miles from their families in Bagram Air Force Base. They have never been charged with an ...
Many of you may have heard of the case of Naheem Hussain and Rehan Zaman at some point. These are two British lads who have been in prison in Pakistan for over five years, despite not having been convicted of any crime.
One of the most significant pieces of ‘evidence’ in the case against these guys has been their confessions. Both young men apparently committed cold-blooded murder, but then felt so bad about it that they decided to confess everything to the police, without a lawyer being present, even though murder is a capital offence in Pakistan.
What seems to ...
When Barack Obama was announced as President of the United States in November last year, I must admit, one of my initial thoughts was – ‘Oh well, I guess that means our play is out of business!’
The name of the play is Rendition Monologues and our company, iceandfire theatre, developed and launched it with Reprieve last year. It weaves together four very moving and shocking first-hand accounts of men who have been victims of extraordinary rendition: Binyam Mohamed, Khaled El-Masri, Abdullah Almalki and Marwan Jabour. It is disseminated via our 400-strong network of professional actors, who volunteer their time and ...
The FAC's report calls for historical guidance for intelligence officers to be released into the public domain as soon as possible...
To date, the British government still refuses to publish either the original or the apparently forthcoming revised guidelines for interrogation of prisoners given to British intelligence officers. Their rather tenuous reasoning is that to release such information into the public domain could compromise ongoing criminal proceedings (although, as David Miliband was embarassingly forced to admit earlier this year, he has no intention of releasing the original guidelines even after these proceedings have come to an end).
We're ...
Indignant government rhetoric on torture rings hollow. The evidence tells a very different story.
It was grandstand stuff. "This is not just about legal obligations," wrote David Miliband and Alan Johnson in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday, trumpeting Britain's unceasing efforts to expose and eliminate torture. "It is about our values as a nation, and about what we do, not just what we say." It was also, sad to say, all talk and no trousers.
The foreign and home secretaries indignantly denied that "alleged wrongdoing is covered up". As with the whole article, this is just so much ipse dixit ...
We are all hugely relieved that Samantha Orobator is now back in the UK and I hope that she will be released as soon as possible.
The ordeal that she has been through is truly shocking; her legal rights were violated on every level – from her right to a fair and proper investigation, to withholding her right to confidential access to an independent lawyer, to the trial that was nothing more than a show trial.
Statements made today by the British government that the Lao sentence would be upheld are disturbing. That the British would rubberstamp their approval on the ...
We're here in Nairobi on the eve of the OGOA summit, when the Secretary of State, HiIllary Clinton, is slated to meet various African heads of state. Some of those leaders still have nationals in Guantánamo, including President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the leader of the government of Somalia.
One Reprieve client, Ismail Mohamoud Mohamed, knew Sheikh Sharif very well. Ismail was one of the founding fathers of the 'Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia', the coalition party that won the elections and propelled Sheikhf Sharif Ahmed to the Presidency at the start of this year. With new leaders in ...
Alex Harpe on the 1000th execution by lethal injection in the United States.
You have been up all night thinking about your life and the decisions and circumstances that have led you to this point. Maybe you regret some of your actions, maybe you don’t. You hear the heavy steps of the guards outside your cell and you know that the time has come. They are here to take you to be killed.
You are walked to the execution room and strapped down to a gurney. A nervous looking man walks up to you and rubs some alcohol on ...
Imagine, if you will, that I have had a twinge of conscience, and I come to you with an admission – I have been complicit in kidnapping.
I have worked with a gang that grabbed a man against his will, took him from his home, tortured him, and even now continues to hold him in some secret location. I tell you that I feel bad about what I did, and ask your understanding and forgiveness.
Perhaps you feel some sympathy for me, and respect the difficulty of my confession.
Naturally, you ask me who the victim of this crime is. “I ...
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