News 2008 |
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| 31 December 2008 |
Letter from leading Scottish campaigners and political figures... Click title to read more
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| 28 December 2008 |
Israeli officials liken the aerial onslaught against Gaza Strip to the opening strategy of the 2006 Lebanese war,... Click title to read more
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| 28 December 2008 |
Ten people have been arrested for public order offences after clashes at a protest near the Israeli embassy in London against air raids on Gaza.... Click title to read more
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| 19 December 2008 |
A British man convicted of running an al-Qaida terror cell was jailed for life today - but the jury wasn't told that he had been tortured... Click title to read more
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| 19 December 2008 |
Commons debate on Sri Lanka... Click title to read more
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| 07 December 2008 |
Afghans are in desperate need of peace - proposal from Hezb-e-Islami... Click title to read more
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| 09 November 2008 |
HUGE numbers of Scots are being stopped and searched by police using powers to crack down on serious crime and terrorism.
More than half a million people north of the Border have been targeted over the past three years, an investigation by The Scottish Mail on Sunday has found.... Click title to read more
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| 31 October 2008 |
British Government refers the case of Guantánamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed to the Attorney General to investigate potential prosecution of those who rendered him to torture.
.... Click title to read more
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| 15 October 2008 |
A new report by Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove about the Israeli military escort of Palestinian children to school in At-Tuwani, during the 2007-2008 school year, details a catalogue of violent settler attacks on the children and a complacent attitude regarding these attacks by the Israeli army.... Click title to read more
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| 14 October 2008 |
In a second climb-down, the government has dropped from the Counter-Terrorism Bill plans which would have let ministers order inquests to be held in private.
... Click title to read more
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| 14 October 2008 |
The Scottish Afghan Society held a protest outside Strathclyde Police HQ about alleged harassment by Special Branch police officers at Glasgow Airport.... Click title to read more
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| 13 October 2008 |
The House of Lords have thrown out the government's plan for 42 day detention without charge by a massive 309 votes to 118. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith says the plan will now be dropped from the Counter-Terrorism Bill.... Click title to read more
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| 06 October 2008 |
Gordon Brown is preparing for a humiliating climbdown over his proposal to hold terrorist suspects for 42 days after being told that it will be defeated in the House of Lords.... Click title to read more
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| 02 October 2008 |
Jojo Yakob fears for his life after losing a final appeal at the Court of Session to stay in Scotland. The decision means that he will almost certainly be returned to Syria.... Click title to read more
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| 28 September 2008 |
Police have continued to arrest demonstrators who took part in the protest at George Bush's visit on 15 June.... Click title to read more
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| 28 September 2008 |
Strathclyde Police had no sooner been praised by Britain's leading counter-terrorism officer as a role model for building community relations, than Glasgow's Afghan community announced it was to march on the force's HQ protesting Special Branch "harassment".... Click title to read more
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| 25 September 2008 |
Defense contractor CACI is claiming immunity from lawsuits alleging torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, saying it was doing the U.S. government's work as a supplier of interrogators.... Click title to read more
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| 25 September 2008 |
Fiona Hyslop says: "The Scottish Government is fundamentally opposed to early morning removals, to the forcible removal of children and to the detention of children at Dungavel or elsewhere. "... Click title to read more
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| 25 September 2008 |
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has launched a new programme called 'Return and Rebuild', providing extra 'support' for refugees returning to war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq under its so-called Voluntary Return and Reintegration Programme (VARRP). And Scottish Refugee Council is being paid to help them.... Click title to read more
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| 22 September 2008 |
A gang of youths who racially assaulted a man in an upmarket Edinburgh suburb is being sought by police.... Click title to read more
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| 21 September 2008 |
Stop the War demonstration at the Labour Party Conference, Manchester, Saturday 20 September 2008... Click title to read more
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| 18 September 2008 |
Dr Bill Wilson, SNP MSP for the West of Scotland, today announced that he had just written to Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Justice, requesting that he obtain an assurance from the UK Government that it would inform the Scottish Government should it give permission for Scottish territory to be used for US rendition flights.... Click title to read more
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| 12 September 2008 |
Pauline McNeill MSP has lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament noting concerns over the awarding of a Scottish Census 2011 contract to CACI UK ... Click title to read more
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| 29 August 2008 |
Five protestors were arrested at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall today and charged with disrupting the performance of the Israeli Jerusalem Quartet, musicians, who enjoy a double status as 'Cultural Ambassadors of Israel' as well as 'Distinguished IDF Musicians'... Click title to read more
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| 29 August 2008 |
Lord Justice Thomas and Mr. Justice Lloyd Jones handed down their second judgment this afternoon on the case of Guantánamo Bay prisoner and British resident Binyam Mohamed David Miliband had been given one week in which to reconsider the government's refusal to share evidence that could help provr Binyam's innocence... Click title to read more
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| 24 August 2008 |
THE SNP are being warned hat they risk alienating Scotland's Muslim community and the entire anti-war movement because of the party's insistence on hiring a firm accused of torturing Iraqi prisoners at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad to carry out the nation's next census.... Click title to read more
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| 21 August 2008 |
Two judges ordered the foreign secretary to hand over to Binyam Mohamed's legal team secret information that could support his case that he was tortured in Pakistan and Morocco before being sent to Guantánamo Bay - statement from Reprieve... Click title to read more
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| 19 August 2008 |
IHRC is concerned by the conviction and sentencing of three men found guilty of possessing or making documents connected with terrorism... Click title to read more
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| 24 July 2008 |
Mohammed Atif Siddique, convicted last Serptember of "terrorism" offences connected to his use of the internet, was last Thursday (24 July) granted to leave to appeal.... Click title to read more
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| 11 July 2008 |
David Davis's byelection victory is a clear sign that people in Britain don't like Gordon Brown's plans for 42-day internment. He has discovered civil liberties, but not as we know them. ... Click title to read more
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| 02 July 2008 |
Dr Bill Wilson, SNP MSP for the West of Scotland, announced today that he met Kenny MacAskill, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, yesterday to hand over a petition addressed to members of the Scottish Parliament asking them to "keep torture flights out of Scotland".... Click title to read more
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| 22 June 2008 |
HUNDREDS OF protesters marked the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights by marching through Glasgow yesterday.... Click title to read more
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| 17 June 2008 |
Disgracefully, and for the first time, a Stop the War demonstration was denied the right to march peacefully up Whitehall and past Downing Street, where George Bush was having dinner with Gordon Brown. Police attacked protestors with metal batons.... Click title to read more
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| 14 June 2008 |
Gordon Brown has brought the Labour Party and the British Parliament into disrepute by using of bribery and threats to win a hairsbreadth majority for the extension to 42 days detention without charge for terrorist suspects - a measure that almost nobody sincerely supports. ... Click title to read more
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| 11 June 2008 |
The Muslim Council of Britain joins human rights groups, a growing body of thinkers and policymakers dealing with our security, together with the vast majority of the British public who oppose the extension of pre-charge-detention. ... Click title to read more
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| 06 June 2008 |
Socialists and campaigners from across the UK and beyond have united around a rally in Glasgow this Saturday in support of Solidarity Co-Convenor Tommy Sheridan and the six members of his party and his family that have been charged in the politically-motivated action by Lothian and Borders Police.... Click title to read more
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| 06 June 2008 |
Hicham Yezza's deportation, set for Sunday June 1st, was stopped due to Judicial review and the case is with the HO's legal representatives now. Meanwhile, Hicham has been forcibly moved to Dover. ... Click title to read more
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| 05 June 2008 |
On Sunday 15 June, the mass murderer-in-chief George Bush will be visiting Britain to meet with Gordon Brown, who continues to collude obediently with Bush's war crimes. Stop the War, in conjunction with CND, has called a demonstration on that day, which will assemble in Parliament Square at 1pm.... Click title to read more
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| 04 June 2008 |
Hugh O'Donnell (Lib Dem, Central Scotland) has today (4 June 2008) tabled a motion in the Scottish Parliament opposing the UK Government's plans to introduce 42 day detention without charge.... Click title to read more
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| 03 June 2008 |
HUMAN rights campaigners and churches last night demanded the closure of Dungavel Removal Centre - Scotland's "Guantanamo" - saying the imprisonment of vulnerable women and children behind a wire fence was unacceptable in 21st-century Scotland.... Click title to read more
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| 31 May 2008 |
Following the cancellation order on his deportation and despite being unjustly incarcerated for over two weeks, Hicham Yezza has received news that he is to be transported to a fifth detention centre.... Click title to read more
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| 30 May 2008 |
The Independent runs a front-page story, The Last Briton in Guantanamo faces death penalty, focusing on the plight of British resident Binyam Mohamed. ... Click title to read more
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| 29 May 2008 |
Doctors, academics and human rights campaigners in Scotland gathered on Thursday 29 May 2008 outside St. John's Church, Edinburgh for a vigil demanding the immediate release of award-winning renowned doctor and human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen. ... Click title to read more
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| 28 May 2008 |
Today at the University of Nottingham academic staff gave a public reading from an Al-Qaeda training manual, outside the Hallward Library, University Park Campus. The demonstration expressed the outrage amongst staff and students after two innocent members of the academic community were arrested under 'terror' legislation in connection with this document, downloaded from an official US government website. ... Click title to read more
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| 27 May 2008 |
Nottingham academics to give public reading of from Al-Qaeda training manual. The document had been downloaded from an official US government website, for academic research into political extremism.... Click title to read more
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| 24 May 2008 |
THE return of dawn raids on asylum seekers has provoked an angry attack on Alex Salmond and his SNP government for failing publicly to denounce the Westminster policy of seizing refugee families at their homes in the early hours of the morning and then detaining mothers, fathers and their children in immigration holding centres.... Click title to read more
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| 21 May 2008 |
Nottingham University Students and Staff Express Serious Concerns about Recent Use of Terrorism Act on Campus and Demand Academic Freedom... Click title to read more
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| 18 May 2008 |
An Armed Forces Day public holiday has been recommended by a government-backed study. The report said more state school pupils should be encouraged to join cadet forces. And it recommends making it a criminal offence to discriminate against people in military uniform.... Click title to read more
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| 16 May 2008 |
Amnesty International has welcomed the public inquiry into the case of an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died after being tortured over a period of 36 hours while detained by UK troops in Basra. But it is worried that the intention is to hold the inquiry under the controversial Inquiries Act 2005... Click title to read more
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| 14 May 2008 |
14 May 2008 will mark one year of imprisonment for Dr Binayak Sen, the well-known public health and civil rights activist, arrested on false charges of ‘assisting’ the Maoist insurgency in Chattisgarh... Click title to read more
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| 13 May 2008 |
Mohammed Atif Siddique has failed in a bid to win bail as he attempts to overturn his conviction, which resulted in an eight-year prison sentence.
... Click title to read more
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| 12 May 2008 |
In Glasgow in the last eight months 800 families have been sent a "Legacy" questionnaire as part of the Home Office's 'Case Resolution' process aimed at clearing the backlog of cases of families who had been, in many cases, for almost seven years. The Home Office recently announced that 720 families out of 800 have been granted leave to remain and 80 families have been refused.... Click title to read more
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| 12 May 2008 |
More than 10 million people are to have their everyday disputes, their politics and their business lives checked by new "tension monitoring" committees.
... Click title to read more
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| 08 May 2008 |
A South African woman and her six year old son were detained in their home yesterday morning in Linkwood Avenue in Drumchapel, Glasgow... Click title to read more
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| 02 May 2008 |
In the early hours of this morning Reprieve client and Al Jazeera journalist, Sami Al Haj, was finally released from Guantánamo Bay and reunited with his wife and young son in Sudan. ... Click title to read more
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| 01 May 2008 |
Today's letters page in the Guardian newpaper carries responses from security minister Tony McNulty and Amnesty International Director Kate Allen... Click title to read more
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| 29 April 2008 |
Officers of the Security Service, MI5, are being accused of "outsourcing" the torture of British citizens to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency in an attempt to obtain information about terrorist plots and to secure convictions against al-Qaida suspects.
... Click title to read more
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| 28 April 2008 |
The High Court of Judiciary in Edinburgh today concluded its hearing into the contempt of court allegations against Aamer Anwar. A judgement will be given in due course. ... Click title to read more
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| 28 April 2008 |
The European Court of Human Rights is expected to come to a decision regarding Babar Ahmad's appeal very soon.... Click title to read more
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| 27 April 2008 |
Sunday Herald feature on Aamer Anwar. Scotland's most prominent human rights lawyer is facing ruin. At the high court in Edinburgh this week, three senior appeal judges will decide whether to find Aamer Anwar guilty of contempt of court. If they do, it could mean a fine, imprisonment or a referral to the Law Society of Scotland, which could effectively ban him from practising law. For Anwar, who has built a career on defending the underdog, the stakes could not be higher.... Click title to read more
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| 27 April 2008 |
CIVIL-LIBERTY campaigners will tomorrow make Scottish legal history by seeking to take part in the trial of a lawyer accused of contempt of court.... Click title to read more
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| 25 April 2008 |
The Central Intelligence Agency knew from the beginning that its secret detention and torturous interrogation tactics probably bordered on illegal from the start, according to new documents identified through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.... Click title to read more
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| 24 April 2008 |
Barrister Rizwan Hussain was brutally beaten and tortured at Zia International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Monday 14th April 2008. He has since returned to the UK [Thursday 17th April 2008].... Click title to read more
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| 24 April 2008 |
Britain's law lords have struck a resounding blow for justice, by ruling that government policy towards another group of Muslim men is unlawful.... Click title to read more
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| 21 April 2008 |
A Polish man was the victim of what police have described as a "racially motivated" attack in Aberdeen.... Click title to read more
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| 21 April 2008 |
Labour was last night accused by the Conservatives of being "split from top to bottom" on the deeply contentious issue of 42 days' pre-charge detention, after a report listing the governing party's potential rebels was leaked.... Click title to read more
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| 17 April 2008 |
A POLISH man today told how he was kicked and punched for 20 minutes by a group of racist attackers as one of them filmed the violence on a mobile phone.... Click title to read more
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| 15 April 2008 |
A REFUGEE support centre in Edinburgh has been forced to close after having its funding slashed.
The Cyrenians charity is shutting its operation in St George's West Church, Shandwick Place, after seeing its funding cut from more than £30,000 to £7627 by the city council.... Click title to read more
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| 15 April 2008 |
An Egyptian military court sentenced 25 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood to jail on Tuesday - a verdict described by Amnesty International as a "perversion of justice".... Click title to read more
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| 13 April 2008 |
MI5 IS to create a team of "Scottish spooks" in a bid to prevent outrages like the Glasgow Airport attack and reduce the radicalisation of young Muslims north of the border.... Click title to read more
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| 11 April 2008 |
The European Court of Human Rights has not yet come to a decision regarding Babar Ahmads appeal. They are not expected to decide before the 22nd April 2008.... Click title to read more
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| 09 April 2008 |
The EU Court of First Instance has overturned decisions by the Council of the EU to include the Kurdish organisations PKK and Kongra Gel on the EU "terrorist list" ... Click title to read more
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| 09 April 2008 |
As the Court of Appeal today ruled that the UK could not lawfully proceed with the deportations of Abu Qatada and two Libyans, 'DD' and 'AS', Amnesty International called on the UK government to abandon its dangerous and discredited policy of 'deportation with assurances'.
... Click title to read more
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| 07 April 2008 |
George Bush declared the recent attack by the puppet Iraqi government - supported by waves of US and British bombers -
on Iraq's second city Basra as a "defining moment" in his "surge" strategy. He had no idea how within days the truth of his words would return to haunt him,... Click title to read more
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| 01 April 2008 |
The House of Commons gave the Counter Terrorism Bill its second reading on April Fool's Day. It's a stitchup the looks set to come unravelled.... Click title to read more
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| 30 March 2008 |
How appropriate that on 'April Fool's Day' Jacqui Smith will launch the long awaited second reading of The Counter Terrorism Bill 2008. We should not be fooled. For the last six years the Labour government has created a climate of fear and deceived us that we face a permanent emergency as a nation. Hence the most fundamental principles of justice such as 'habeas corpus' and the right to a fair trial have to be mutilated in the name of national security.
... Click title to read more
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| 28 March 2008 |
In July 2005 Khalid Khaliq came forward to voluntarily to assist with the 7/7 investigation. Nearly three years later, on Tuesday March 11th 2008 Khaliq, 43, was sentenced to sixteen months in prison for possession of information that is freely available from an American website set up by the US Ministry of Justice.... Click title to read more
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| 28 March 2008 |
Two new articles covering the results of nearly three years of the police 7/7 investigation, the arrests made and the charges brought. ... Click title to read more
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| 25 March 2008 |
Over 5,000 people marched through Glasgow on Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.... Click title to read more
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| 17 March 2008 |
Bachir Mohammed, who was a day away from being deported to face an uncertain future in his homeland has been freed to be reunited with his family. ... Click title to read more
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| 14 March 2008 |
Akif Wan (Kurdistan National Congress), Aamer Anwar and Alex Fitch (Peace in Kurdistan Campaign) spoke at a public meeting on "Censorship and Resistance in Kurdistan, the Middle East and Britain" in Edinburgh on Thursday 13 March. ... Click title to read more
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| 08 March 2008 |
A FATHER-of-two from Edinburgh is facing deportation after being detained on suspicion of terrorism.... Click title to read more
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| 06 March 2008 |
Spain drops attempt to extradite former Guantanamo prisoners Jamil el-Banna and Omar Deghayes... Click title to read more
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| 28 February 2008 |
Glasgow University UCU (University and College Union) yesterday agreed to support human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, who is facing contempt of court proceedings over statements he made on behalf of a client, Mohammed Atif Siddique, who was convicted of "terrorism" offences in September 2007... Click title to read more
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| 26 February 2008 |
Hundreds of Iraqis and Afghans captured by British and American special forces were rendered to prisons where they faced torture, former SAS soldier Ben Griffin said yesterday.... Click title to read more
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| 23 February 2008 |
A former British special forces commando who quit the military says Britain is "deeply involved" in the US practice of rendition.... Click title to read more
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| 21 February 2008 |
Legal action charity Reprieve, which provides frontline investigation and legal representation to prisoners held without trial in the name of the"war on terror", calls on the British government to hold a fully transparent and independent inquiry into Diego Garcia's emerging role in the CIA's extraordinary rendition programme.... Click title to read more
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| 20 February 2008 |
THE UK Government was today accused of "interference" in the appeal of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
Scotland's top prosecutor would be prepared to release a mystery document which could help overturn Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi's conviction, his lawyers said.... Click title to read more
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| 15 February 2008 |
Solidarity today condemned as scandalous and unprecedented the widening vendetta being pursued by Lothian and Borders Police and the Scottish Crown office against our party and Tommy Sheridan.... Click title to read more
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| 15 February 2008 |
Yesterday Omar Deghayes and Jamil El-Banna, two of the three Britons freed from Guantanamo in December, returned to Westminster Magistrates' Court in London for the third time since their release - report by Andy Worthington, author of "The Guantanamo Files,"... Click title to read more
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| 13 February 2008 |
The convictions of five young Muslim men jailed over extremist literature have been quashed by the Appeal Court.... Click title to read more
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| 12 February 2008 |
Spain flouts Law Lords ruling in its treatment of Farid Hilali, extradited from Britain on 8 Jan... Click title to read more
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| 01 February 2008 |
Mouloud Sihali was one of eight men acquitted over the Ricin plot. Mouloud gives a 1st-hand account of the psychological effects induced by control orders.... Click title to read more
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| 30 January 2008 |
A Moroccan man wanted by Spain in connection with the 9/11 attacks has lost a four year extradition battle after the House of Lords overturned a High Court decision in April 2007 which held his detention was unlawful and that he should be extradited to Spain.... Click title to read more
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| 30 January 2008 |
Farid Hilali will be taking his case to EU following a House of Lords ruling that would allow his extradition to Spain on terror charges, says his solicitor... Click title to read more
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| 25 January 2008 |
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has finally presented her controversial Counter-Terrorism Bill to Parliament.... Click title to read more
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