| PRISONER CAMPAIGNS & PETITIONS |
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The Condemned - Myuran Sukumaran & Andrew Chan |
 From SBS Dateline - Back in April 2005, Indonesian authorities in Bali swooped on a heroin trafficking ring that netted nine young Australians, in the five and a half years since then, the now infamous 'Bali Nine' have scarcely been out of the news. Two of the nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were subsequently sentenced to death. Scott Rush received the same sentence after lodging an appeal against a life sentence, and currently all three are appealing death penalties. After months of careful negotiations with their lawyers and Indonesian authorities 'Dateline's Mark Davis secured unprecedented and quite intimate access to Andrew Chan, and Myuran Sukumaran, on Death row in Bali, the first time anyone has been permitted to film there. Here is Mark's special report.
Click Here for Full Story
Myuran Sukumaran Campaign Information
Andrew Chan Campaign Information
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Petition for South Africa to sign transfer agreement with Mauritius |
ForeignPrisoners.com recently received a report frolm the mother of a South African man named Johann who is serving a 9 year sentence in Mauritius.
South Africa refuses to sign a Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Mauritius who is more
than willing to return SA citizens. The group representing South African prisoners have acquired Legal Counsel to
assist us in their mission in trying to persuade the Government to sign the
PTA. A petition can be found at the following internet link.Please support
this cause by signing it and forwarding to as many people as possible.
- click here
The following url is the website that was created for the South Africans
held in foreign countries - http://www.lockedup.co.za/
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| Roy Bennett freed from Zimbabwe’s Mutare Jail |
On Friday the 13th February 2009 Roy Leslie Bennett was arrested and charged with Treason in Harare. We call for the urgent release of Mr Bennett. Mr Bennett should be allowed to take up his ministerial post to help revive Agriculture immediately. The angels of suppression should accept that the winds of change are unstoppable.
The Junta keeps on flip flopping about the charges that Mr Bennett faces. It is inspiring to hear that Mr Bennett is in good spirits and he sends a message to all Zimbabweans through his lawyer "Whatever these challenges, if we remain unwaveringly dedicated, we will achieve peace, freedom and democracy in our life time - believe me,"
SEE LATEST INTERVIEWS OF ROY'S RELEASE: Click here
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Who are the Cuban Five? |
The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in U.S. prison, serving four life sentences and 75 years collectively, after being wrongly convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami, on June 8, 2001.
They are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González.
The Five were falsely accused by the U.S. government of committing espionage conspiracy against the United States, and other related charges.
But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defense that they were involved in monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups, in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba.
The Five’s actions were never directed at the U.S. government. They never harmed anyone nor ever possessed nor used any weapons while in the United States.
Click Here for More Information
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Aung San Suu Kyi |
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Urgent Action for Ali Farahbakhsh |
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Brain-damaged Briton needs Blair plea to save him from firing squad |
SAVE LUONG
Click below to sign the petition at 10 Downing St.
Luong is set to be executed |
A personal appeal by Tony Blair is the last hope for a brain-damaged British man who faces death by firing squad after being convicted of drug smuggling in Vietnam.
Le Manh Luong, 46, a British citizen of Vietnamese origin, could be executed in the next few weeks after losing his final appeal against a death sentence imposed last November for heroin smuggling. He can be saved only if the Vietnamese President, Nguyen Minh Triet, grants him clemency.
According to Reprieve, a British organisation that helps with the defence of death row inmates, such pleas are rarely granted to condemned foreign convicts without the personal intervention of a head of government. Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, has made a request for clemency but there has so far been no word on the case from Mr Blair.
Mr Luong’s relatives in Britain and New Zealand insist that he has been easily manipulated by others since sustaining brain damage as a child during the Vietnam War. A report from a British psychiatrist concludes that his ability to make good decisions has been impaired by the head injury.
“Normally the Prime Minister waits until the 11th hour to intervene,” says Clive Stafford Smith, the legal director and founder of Reprieve. “That is not an option in this case — in Vietnam they do not give execution dates, and so there is no way to tell when the 11th hour is. Without Mr Blair’s personal representations to the President of Vietnam we are faced with the real danger of Luong being executed. It would be a terrible stain on Tony Blair’s legacy to see this man executed because he failed to act.”
In 1967 Mr Luong’s family home in the city of Haiphong was hit by an American bomb that caused him brain damage and killed two of his brothers. “He fades in and out,” said his British niece, Thanh Le. “He tends to wander off and fall asleep sometimes. He suffers from chronic depression and he’s taken medication.
“If he is guilty it’s because he is a simple, naïve man who has always been easily led. I think he was led astray without knowing the implications of what he was doing.” In a report for Reprieve, Jon Kennedy, a forensic psychiatrist, wrote that there was evidence that Mr Luong was “suffering from a mental disorder . . .which would have directly impacted on his capacity to make good decisions”.
Click Here for More Information
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Iran: A political prisoner in critical condition while on huger strike |
Valiyollah Feiz-Mahdavi, a PMOI sympathizer, has been on huger strike in prison since August 23
Iranian Resistance calls for international efforts to save his life
Valiollah Feiz-Mahdavi, a PMOI sympathizer, is in critical situation while on huger strike in prisonNCRI - The following statement was issued on September 4 by the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran:
According to information received by the Iranian Resistance, Mr. Valiyollah Feiz-Mahdavi, a sympathizer of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran imprisoned in Iran who has been on hunger strike since August 23, 2006, is in a critical condition. The prison guards, who are Revolutionary Guardsmen, have turned a blind eye to his deteriorating health condition and have not taken him to a hospital, according to witnesses inside the prison. When faced with protests by his inmates for not seeing to his condition, a high-ranking prison official said, "Do not worry, he will not die until tomorrow." Late in the evening, due to strong protests by Mr. Feiz-Mahdavi's fellow inmates, he was transferred from Ward 2 of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj to an unknown location.
Click Here for Full Story
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Help Sibel Yalvac |
On 10 July 2003, the 21 year old, mentally retarded Sibel Yalvac from Rotterdam was arrested in the airport of the Indonesian capital Jakarta. On 6 april 2004 she was convicted to 10 years imprisonment for smuggling drugs.
Two independent Dutch experts, a psychologist and a probation officer, tested Sibel. They declare she cannot be held responsible for her actions. She cannot distinguish cause and consequence, is credulous, has too much fantasy and she cannot even count to twelve.
Sibel has been used by ruthless criminals for their drugs trade and will now spend years in hell.
Every year around Indonesian independence day (17 August) there is a possibility for amnesty. We ask the Indonesian government to consider the special situation of Sibel and grant her amnesty.
The campaign 'Help Sibel' asks, on behalf of Sibel and her family, your support for this request. The petition has 6047 signatories. Will you help us?
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URGENT ACTION Health concern/Torture: Jumah al-Dossari |
Guantánamo detainee Jumah al-Dossari attempted suicide in March. He says he
has been tortured in custody, and is believed to have made numerous suicide
attempts since he was detained, in January 2001. US officials have refused
to give his lawyers any information about his current condition.
Lawyers visiting other detainees at Guantánamo in late March were told that
Jumah al-Dossari had recently attempted suicide, for what may have been the
12th time, by slitting his throat. Official notes from Guantánamo which have
recently been declassified also record the suicide attempt. Despite requests
for information, his lawyers have been unable to determine his current
condition.
US Navy commander Robert Durand, a spokesperson at Guantánamo, told US
journalists earlier this month that there was a suicide attempt at the camp
on 11 March and that the unnamed detainee is "clinically stable".
He has also
noted that a single detainee, believed to be Jumah al-Dossari, accounts for
12 of the 39 reported suicide attempts at Guantánamo.
Click Here for Full Story
USA: The secretive and illegal US programme of 'rendition'
Guantanamo Bay Information & Other Prisoners
Testimony of Jumah al-Dossari
"When I took up a pen and decided to write about what I have suffered and my
tragedy, I was unable to decide where and how I should start. What I have
seen is a huge tragedy and a weighty matter, far weightier than I can put to
paper. Indeed, the enormous horrors that my eyes have seen have and continue
to see renew my anxiety and pain and my very being and feelings are shaken
at the mere thought or flash of them in my memory. How can my heart forget
them and how can my soul who bore these horrors continue with life?
As I
hold my pen, my hand is shaking. How will I write about these tragedies? Yes
tragedies, in all the possible meanings of the word. How will I write about
these horrors and must I swallow the bitter lump that forms in my throat
when I remember them? The revolting torture and those vile attacks which
were a humiliation and will continue to be a vile stain on history, memories
that whenever I look back on them, I wonder how my soft heart could bear
them, how my body could bear the pain of the torture and how my mind could
bear all that stress. How I wish my memories and my thoughts could be
forgotten. But for me, in forgetting it and its effects, there are still
memories, lifelong evidence of what happened to me in my wounds, my
afflictions, my pain and my sadness. From here, in the gloom of prisons and
from the depths of the detention camp, I am writing about what I have
suffered. I am writing about my pain and my suffering.Click Here for complete testimony | |
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Lynne Stewart Fights For Her Freedom |
 May 30th, 2010
Lynne Stewart received a 28-month sentence in October 2006. Her
lawyers appealed, and she was out on bail until November 17, 2009,
when her bail was revoked after the Second Circuit ruled on her and
the government’s appeals.
Radical human rights attorney Lynne Stewart has been falsely accused
of helping terrorists. On Tuesday, April 9, 2002, she was arrested and
agents searched her Manhattan office for documents. She was arraigned
before Manhattan federal Judge John Koeltl. This is an obvious
attempt by the U.S. government to silence dissent, curtail vigorous
defense lawyers, and install fear in those who would fight against the
U.S. government’s racism, seek to help Arabs and Muslims being
prosecuted for free speech and defend the rights of all oppressed
people.
Lynne’s bail has been revoked, and she is now being held in jail
after the Second Circuit ruled on her and the government’s appeals on
Tuesday, November 17, 2009.
Click here for Case Information
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