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E Mail to Request European Court of Human Rights to re-examine Babar Ahmad’s case. Babar Ahmad is a British citizen who has been detained without trial in the UK for almost 8 years facing extradition to the US for offences allegedly committed in the UK. All the evidence against him was collected in the UK with most of it being sent to the US before the Crown Prosecution Service could decide whether to prosecute him in the UK or not, a fact only admitted by the CPS in November 2011. It is only right that Babar be tried in the UK and not extradited to the US.
Please write to the European Court of Human Rights. ALL CORRESPONDENCE MUST BE SENT BEFORE 10th JULY. We encourage supporters to prepare their own letters using the above points. A sample letter is below for your convenience but a personalised letter always carries more weight.
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Judge Sir Nicholas Bratza
President of the European Court of Human Rights
Council of Europe
67075 Strasbourg Cedex
France
Dear Judge Bratza
Re: Babar Ahmad and Others v. United Kingdom (24027/07)
I urge you to accept the referral of the Babar Ahmad case to the Grand Chamber for the following reasons:
1. The ECtHR considered the Babar Ahmad case since June 2007 before it delivered its judgement on 10 April 2012, i.e. almost a full five years. In late 2011, the ECtHR knowingly accepted false evidence from the UK Government that ADX Florence prisoners spend an average of 3 years in solitary confinement before entering the ‘Step-Down’ program to end their isolation. However, when Babar Ahmad’s lawyers submitted accurate rebuttal evidence to the ECtHR that dozens of ADX Florence prisoners have been in solitary confinement for over 10 years (with several there for over 15 years), the ECtHR refused to accept this evidence on the basis that there was not enough time to consider it. (This despite the ECtHR considering the Babar Ahmad case since June 2007, i.e. almost five years). I find it inexcusable that the ECtHR chose to conduct the proceedings in this case in such a biased manner by hearing only one side of the argument.
2. I am puzzled why the ECtHR refused to even consider submissions on solitary confinement by the eminent Professor Juan Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. I am particularly disturbed that the ECtHR ruled in its Chamber judgement of 10 April 2012 that the ADX Florence prison regime does not amount to isolation because its inmates can shout to each other through the “ventilation system.” I am concerned that this sets a dangerous precedent for EU citizens who may end up in prisons in the developing world.
3. On 20 April 2012, 10 days after the judgement in the case was delivered, the UK Attorney-General Dominic Grieve QC MP unashamedly admitted to the Law Society Gazette that the European Court was already showing “greater responsiveness” to the concerns of the UK’s national courts, parliament and public opinion – for example in its Abu Hamza extradition judgement. I am shocked that a supposedly independent judicial court such as the ECtHR has allowed itself to be manipulated and influenced by UK politicians and the tabloid press.
4. I find it incredible that the ECtHR concluded in this case that imposing an irreducible whole life sentence e on Babar Ahmad would “not be grossly disproportionate” (Paragraph 243 of Chamber judgement) even though he has not been accused of a capital offence, in which someone was killed. It is irresponsible of the ECtHR to lump together distinct cases as one without considering the individual facts of each case.
Babar Ahmad is the longest detained-without-trial British citizen in the modern history of the UK, having been held in prison since August 2004 (8 years). In late 2011, over 149,000 members of the British public signed an official UK Government e-petition supporting Babar Ahmad’s right to be tried in Britain. The ECtHR has one last opportunity to put an end to this historic injustice. I therefore urge you in the strongest possible terms, in the interests of justice and human rights, to have the Grand Chamber re-examine this case.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely
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