Press Releases from 2007

SACC welcomes the announcement by Foreign Secretary David Milbiand yesterday confirming that three British men held at Guantanamo Bay will come home shortly. The three men are Jamil El Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdennour Sameur. We share the relief and joy the men and their families must be feeling at this news. It has been a long time coming.

At Edinburgh High Court today, Lord Carloway sentenced Mohammed Atif Siddique - convicted last month of "terrorism" offences - to a total of 8 years in jail.

The media this morning are asking "Guilty.. But is Siddique really a terrorist?" Of course he isn't a terrorist. With a prosecution case that sought to manipulate the emotions of the jury, and terrorism laws so ill-drafted that it seems they can mean anything at all, the jury can hardly be blamed for getting it wrong.

Our new, unelected, Security Minister Alan West has got off to a flying start. Just as you'd expect from a security minister, he has announced that he wants a security state. He says people must learn to "snitch" - his word - on friends, family and neighbours.

Nicky Moss, producer of the acclaimed new film "Taking Liberties", will be taking part in a panel discussion following a screening of the film at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Saturday afternoon (7 July)

An Asian-owned shop in Riddrie was destroyed yesterday by what press reports describe as a "massive fire and explosion." It's time for everyone to begin exercising a bit more caution in the way that they discuss the events of the last few days.

Saturday's apparent attack on Glasgow airport has shocked everyone in Scotland. But the interests of justice will be served best if police stick to the tried and trusted methods contained in the ordinary criminal law, and avoid using the divisive powers granted them under terrorism laws.

SACC has written to Holyrood Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill calling for an investigation into fears that Scottish airports have been used illegally in connection with CIA "extraordinary rendition" flights.

SACC is stunned by the Law Lords decision on Monday not to hear Babar Ahmad's appeal against extradition to the US. In December last year the High Court in London, despite rejecting Babar Ahmad's appeal, gave certification for his case to be taken to the House of Lords. But the Law Lords ruled on Monday that the two points of Law presented to them were not matters of "public importance" and hence rejected the appeal.

Brown stitched up the Labour leadership - now he wants to stitch up our liberty. We don't need any more bells and whistles bolted on to Britain's anti-terror laws. We need fundamental change to our anti-terror policies. We need laws that target criminals, laws that protect the innocent, laws that encourage careful, rational police work, laws that discourage drag-net investigations, discourage prejudice, discourage racism, discourage panic. In other words we need the ordinary criminal law, not gimmicks invented to boost the discredited "war on terror."

As the Holyrood elections approach, human rights group Scotland Against Criminalising Communities is holding a conference in Glasgow with the theme "Rights and Resistance."

SACC applauds today's decision by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust to allow a number of events organised by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) to be publicised on its website. The events had previously been removed by the Holocaust Day Memorial Trust in a row over SPSC's staging of rehearsed readings of the controversial Holocaust play Perdition during Holocaust Memorial Week.

SACC condemns as censorship the decision by Britain's Holocaust Memorial Day Trust to remove from its website a number of events organised by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign for Holocaust Memorial Week. SACC supports all the censored events.

MSPs, campaigning groups and individuals pledged at a meeting held in Scottish Parliament today to press for the closure of the the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.