MOJUK: Newsletter ‘Inside Out’ 53
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Satpal Ram is Free

This is a Victory but not Vindication

At 7.00pm on Tuesday 18th June 2002, Satpal Ram walked through the prison gate of HMP Blantyre House, for the last time.

Satpal's conviction has not been quashed and though he is now out on licence, Satpal will continue to fight the conviction, that has kept him in prison since 1987.

It was a fight to the bitter end.

Threatened with legal action, that continued imprisonment of Satpal, was unlawful the Treasury Solicitor for the Home Office, threw in the towel last Thursday 13th June and said they would release Satpal.

All it needed to free Satpal, was two signatures, the Lord Woolf the Lord Chief Justice, put his signature to the paper on Friday 14th June. All it needed was the counter signature of a Home Office Minister, usually the prison minister would counter sign.

At this stage the Home Secretary David Blunkett, made a personal intervention and was more than reluctant to sign Satpal's release. He should have counter signed the release on Friday but didn't, which meant Satpal had to spend another weekend in prison.

Monday and Tuesday, numerous phone calls to Blunkett's office brought no joy, it was becoming clear that despite the advice of his own legal experts, Blunkett was stonewalling.

Satpal's legal team, contacted the Treasury Solicitor again on Tuesday afternoon June 18th, who said they stood by their original decision, it was Blunkett, who was holding up the release, against their advice.

Now Satpal's solicitors, felt there was no option but to go back to court.

At 6.00pm Tuesday evening, Satpal's legal team were on their way to the High Court to apply for an order to release Satpal, when David Blunkett, conceded defeat and counter signed Satpal's, release papers.

The release papers were faxed to HMP Blantyre House and Satpal was released at 7.00pm.

Back ground to the last weeks events:

On the 27th October 2000 the Parole Board gave an unprecedented recommendation supporting the immediate release of Satpal Ram. However the then Home Secretary Jack Straw, refused to accept the recommendation and ordered that Satpal, should remain in prison.

Dennis Stafford's recent victory at the European Court of Human Rights has forced the present Home Secretary David Blunkett to reverse that decision. The ruling clearly stated that the continued detention by the Home Secretary, after the parole boards recommendation to release someone was illegal.

Satpal Ram's lawyer, Daniel Guedalla, said: "It does not mean they accept he is innocent and he is still challenging his wrongful conviction. This is a victory but not complete vindication. He is still on a life licence until his conviction is quashed. He lost 18 months or more of his liberty because of Jack Straw interfering."

Satpal's campaign to clear his name will continue.

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'I was threatened with hanging by racist prison guards' By Arifa Akbar

Satpal Ram, an Asian man who served 15 years after being convicted of murdering a man who he said had racially attacked him, spoke yesterday of the abuse and bigotry he endured in jail and his resolve to see his conviction quashed.

In an interview with The Independent, Mr Ram, 36, from Handsworth, Birmingham, who was released from jail on licence on Tuesday, likened his case to that of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.

He said that if he had not defended himself with a knife, in a fight with a customer in a Bengali restaurant, he would have been a "dead Stephen Lawrence rather than an alive Satpal Ram".

Mr Ram was sentence to life for the fatal stabbing of Clarke Pearce in the restaurant in Birmingham in November 1986, with a recommendation that he serve 10 years. During the fight, Mr Ram was stabbed twice with a broken glass. Mr Pearce died from wounds inflicted by a small packing knife that Mr Ram claimed he had used to defend himself.

Mr Ram, whose parents emigrated to England from the Indian state of Punjab in the 1950s, said Mr Pearce's death was regrettable and tragic. But he added: "I would have ended up another statistic if I had not defended myself that night."

He also alleged he had suffered appalling and repeated abuse by officers during his time in jail, much of which was spent in solitary confinement.

In 2000 the Parole Board said Mr Ram should be released on licence, but Jack Straw, Home Secretary at the time, overruled the recommendation because Mr Ram had refused to admit guilt.

His release finally came after European Court judges ruled last month that the Government had breached the human rights of the convicted murder Dennis Stafford by keeping him in jail longer than recommended by the Parole Board. The judges added that the power of a minister to overrule the board had been illegally used.

Mr Ram said he would be bringing a civil case for unlawful imprisonment for his incarceration during the past 18 months. "I feel there should be a public inquiry as to why I have been unlawfully held in prison since October 2000," he said.

"The court have ruled that the Home Secretary acted unlawfully. I feel that he should now be charged with unlawful imprisonment."

His supporters maintain that he acted in self-defence and was the victim of an unprovoked racial attack by Mr Pearce. The jury was not asked to consider the racist nature of the attack and key witnesses were not called, the campaigners say.

Mr Ram's cause has been backed by a string of high- profile figures including the pop bands Primal Scream, Apache Indian and Asian Dub Foundation. The 15-year campaign to free him included a petition with 2,000 signatures.

Mr Ram, who has three sisters and two brothers, said he did not regard himself as a murderer but as a political prisoner because of the political dimension to his case.

Thinking back to the fateful night that led to his incarceration, he said he had been "filled with fear" when a group of white men hurled racist abuse at him, calling him a "wog" and a "Paki".

Mr Ram said the knife he had been carrying on the night of the killing was the penknife he used in his job as a warehouseman. He had only had it with him because he had neglected to take it out of his pocket, he said. "I wasn't in the habit of carrying a penknife. It was in my pocket from work that day. I forgot to take it out and my employer verified this at the time."

During the course of his sentence, Mr Ram was moved to 74 different prisons and was regarded, he claimed, as a difficult prisoner. Yesterday he said he endured frequent and random racial abuse. None of his official complaints had been upheld.

"I sat and took it all in the early days, but then I thought enough is enough. You can keep a dog in a kennel and kick it in the face every morning for three days but on the fourth day the dog will bite back. I felt the prison officers I encountered tried to crush my resolve but I was determined not to let that happen."

Having served six years in solitary confinement, he said that he was randomly stripped, beaten and threatened with hanging by prison officers. "They would come in and shout at me calling me racist names. Seventeen-stone men would shout "you black c***" at me," he said.

Mr Ram said he received the support of people from around the world and their sympathetic letters helped him to get through his prison experience. Having left school without any formal qualifications, he used his time inside to read and educate himself. "The one thing I refused to let happen was to become institutionalised," he said.

Mr Ram was refused a visit to see his ill mother without handcuffs last year. She died without seeing her youngest son, a moment he recalled as his all-time low in prison.

"Prison leaves very few people's lives intact and it caters for the guilty, not the innocent," Mr Ram said.

"It is all the worse if you are a person of colour who has been wrongfully convicted."

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Ian Thomas has been moved to

HMP Sudbury

Ashbourne

Derbyshire, DE6 5HW

Sudbury is a category D prison and accepts all suitable prisoners who fit Sudbury criteria.General Description. Built as a hospital for the US Air Force for the D-Day landings, it was converted to a prison in 1948. Most of the original single storey accommodation is still in use. New single storey buildings accommodate prisoners, again in mainly two man rooms with some single room accommodation.

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Winston Silcott, to move to open prison!!!

Despite what the article below says, Winston has not yet been transferred

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Silcott's hopes of freedom boosted by jail transfer By Ian Burrell, Independent, 22 June 2002

Winston Silcott, one of Britain's most controversial life-sentence prisoners, has been moved to an open prison in readiness for his possible release, the Prison Service confirmed yesterday.

Silcott was convicted of murdering Police Constable Keith Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm riots in Tottenham, north London, in 1985, but was cleared by the Court of Appeal six years later.

He remains in custody serving a life sentence for the murder of Anthony Smith, a boxer, at a party in 1984. Silcott claims he was acting in self-defence.

He will have served 17 years this month, three years over the minimum tariff he was told he must serve before becoming eligible for parole.

His supporters have claimed he is being kept in prison for political reasons. Silcott's legal team said the Parole Board had recommended in January that he be transferred to an open prison. David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, has accepted the recommendation.

Judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled earlier this month that the Home Secretary could not overrule a Parole Board recommendation to release a prisoner.

Silcott's brother George said yesterday: "We look forward to having him home, although we are very concerned about how long it is taking. He has never caused any problems in prison and it's difficult to understand how it could have taken David Blunkett six months to approve the board's recommendation."

Silcott's solicitor, Tony Murphy, said: "He has been described as a model prisoner since his last review in 1999 and should have been transferred to an open prison then.

"He looks forward to progressing through open and returning to his family."

The Prison Service said it did not discuss individual cases. However, a spokeswoman said: "Life-sentence prisoners who are transferred to open conditions will have been assessed thoroughly by the independent Parole Board. The assessment must conclude that a prisoner is a sufficiently low risk to be transferred to open conditions.

"Most life sentence prisoners spend a period in open conditions so their readiness and suitability for release can be assessed."

Silcott, who has grown a 3ft-long beard which he refuses to shave until he is freed, was allowed out of the low-security Stocken jail in Leicestershire in November last year on a "familiarisation visit", accompanied by at least one prison officer. The six-hour visit to Peterborough, in Cambridgeshire, prompted stories in sections of the media that he was being allowed "shopping" trips.

Scotland Yard is reinvestigating the murder of PC Blakelock. A spokesman said the inquiry was continuing and was an "in-depth and painstaking process involving the re-examination of hundreds of exhibits and statements in the light of new technology and methods".

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You can kill and get away with it!

The police named below, were all involved in the deaths of civilians, not one of them will ever spend a minute behind bars.

Inspector Neil Sharman and Police Constables Kevin Fagan, Nigel Dawson, Neil Blakey, Mark Ellerington, Matthew Barr, 38, custody sergeant, John Dunn, 40

Sharman and Fagan, shot dead, Harry Stanley as he walked home from his local pub

Dawson, Blakey, Elleringon, Barr and Dunn, were all involved in the death of Christopher Alder, 37, who died face down in the custody suite at Queen's Gardens police station in Hull with his trousers and underpants around his knees. An inquest jury ruled two years ago that he was unlawfully killed.

Family and friends of both Harry Stanley and Christopher Alder are united in their condemnation of the way the Crown Prosecution have mishandled the cases.

Irene Stanley, is going to make a formal complaint about the coroner and launch a judicial review of the inquest into her husband's death.She stormed out of the inquiry followed by friends and supporters, after the coroner ruled out, ‘unlawful killing.

Janet Alder, said she might bring a civil suit against the officers on behalf of Mr Alder's two sons, now aged 16 and 18. "To me, this gives the police licence to act as they wish and next time it could someone else's brother or another tragic victim," She is also thinking of calling for a public enquiry, into all aspects of the case, a call which is supported by the families solicitor, Ruth Bundey, who describer the actions of the Crown Prosecution Service as "a limping prosecution".

Full statements, from both campaigns to follow.

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Trial collapses of policemen accused over custody death

By Ian Herbert, Independent, 22 June 2002

The trial of five police officers accused of the manslaughter of a black former paratrooper in their custody was halted yesterday when the judge threw out all charges.

Christopher Alder, 37, died face down in the custody suite at Queen's Gardens police station in Hull with his trousers and underpants around his knees. An inquest jury ruled two years ago that he was unlawfully killed.

But as the defence prepared to open its case, three months into the trial at Teesside Crown Court, Mr Justice Roderick Evans instructed the jury to acquit constables Nigel Dawson, 39, Neil Blakey, 42, Mark Ellerington, 36, and Matthew Barr, 38, and their custody sergeant, John Dunn, 40, of manslaughter. "There was conflicting medical evidence about why Mr Alder had become unconscious and about what had killed him," Mr Justice Evans said.

Separate charges of misconduct in public office were also thrown out because, in the judge's opinion, there was no evidence of "recklessness", the criminal test required.

"If the test ... was negligence there would undoubtedly be a case to answer, but negligence is not the test," he told the jury.

"It is undoubtedly true the detectives did not give Mr Alder the basic first aid he needed or take any steps to administer first aid until it was too late. There is no doubt they collectively and individually got it wrong and badly so," the judge said during a one-hour judgment on the defence's lengthy submissions that the charges be dropped.

The verdict was a bitter blow to Mr Alder's family and ended a four-year fight for criminal convictions that began with the seven-week inquest - the longest over a death in police custody. Despite the inquest verdict and the officers' failure to have it overturned at the High Court, the Crown Prosecution Service initially insisted that manslaughter charges would not be brought. Only after the family's lawyers commissioned fresh medical reports did the situation change.

The family's solicitor, Ruth Bundey, called yesterday for a public inquiry into the case, similar to that carried out after the death of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Ms Bundey called for an investigation into "missed opportunities ... evidence not collated, evidence destroyed, evidence not followed up". "That's why I call this a limping prosecution," she said.

Mr Alder's sister, Janet Alder, said she might bring a civil suit against the officers on behalf of Mr Alder's two sons, now aged 16 and 18. "To me, this gives the police licence to act as they wish and next time it could someone else's brother or another tragic victim," said Ms Alder.

Mr Alder, who left the Parachute Regiment in 1983 after being decorated for services in Northern Ireland, had been treated at Hull Royal Infirmary after an altercation outside a nightclub on the night of his death, 1 April 1998. He was arrested for a breach of the peace when he refused to leave the hospital grounds, and was taken to the police station in a patrol van.

He was able to walk up the two steps into the cage of the van and say "See you later" to a hospital security guard, but slumped into unconsciousness during the five-minute journey to the police station.

Forensic examination revealed signs of a heavy smear of blood in the back of the van, although medical evidence disproved allegations that the officers assaulted him.

CCTV footage from the custody suite - a central part of the prosecution case - showed the five experienced officers' attitudes as Mr Alder, a fitness fanatic, took his last breaths. They were convinced he was play-acting or "doing the dying swan", as one of them said.

At the end of the case yesterday, Christopher Enzor, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service's case work directorate in York, said establishing a criminal level of proof was "always going to be difficult". He added: "The key problem in the manslaughter case was proving beyond reasonable doubt ... that the actions and omissions of the five police officers contributed more than minimally to the tragic death of Mr Alder."

Stuart Downes, chairman of the the Humberside Police Federation, said he had applied to have the five officers reinstated to the force.

Mr Alder was the seventh person to have been killed unlawfully in police custody in 10 years. Six have been black and one Irish.

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Family 'denied justice' over police killing

By Ian Burrell, Independent, 22 June 2002

The family of a man shot dead by police who mistook a table leg he was carrying for a sawn-off shotgun claimed yesterday that a coroner had denied them justice.

Harry Stanley's widow, Irene, said she would sue the Metropolitan Police, make a formal complaint about the coroner and seek a judicial review of the inquest into her husband's death.

Mrs Stanley and her supporters stormed out of St Pancras coroner's court in central London when the coroner ruled out the option of the jury returning an unlawful killing verdict. One shouted "murderers" as they marched out of the court during Dr Stephen Chan's summing-up.

Mr Stanley, 46, was shot twice by Metropolitan Police firearms officers as he walked home from a pub in Hackney, east London, in September 1999. The officers said they believed he was carrying a sawn-off shotgun in a tightly wrapped plastic bag but the item turned out to be the leg of a coffee table he had taken to be repaired.

After the jury returned an open verdict, Mrs Stanley said outside court: "It's disgusting. We have been denied justice. The jury were not allowed to bring a verdict of unlawful killing even if they wanted to. It's not right. There has been no police officer charged with the mistakes they made. The officers stood in the dock and never even said sorry or showed any remorse."

Mrs Stanley's solicitor, Nogah Ofer, said: "We are launching a judicial review in the High Court on the basis that the coroner made a blatant error of law. If there's any evidence that the jury could use to reach a certain verdict, let alone extremely strong evidence, as in this case, then that verdict should be available."

Dr Chan had given the jury only two options: lawful killing or an open verdict. It chose the latter after deliberating for more than an hour. As the 10 jury members left the building they each shook Mrs Stanley by the hand. One man said to her: "No favouritism. We just did what we thought was right."

Mr Stanley, a painter and decorator with three children, died after being shot in the head by Inspector Neil Sharman and in the hand by PC Kevin Fagan. The firearms team was alerted after a man in a pub where Mr Stanley had been drinking dialled 999 and reported an "Irishman" carrying a sawn-off shotgun in a plastic bag.

The inquest was shown evidence indicating that Mr Stanley must have been facing away from the officers when he was killed. The fatal shot passed through the left side of his head. But Dr Chan made no mention of the testimony of the forensic experts in his summing-up. He told the jurors they should come to their verdict based on what they thought the officers believed when they had fired at Mr Stanley.

In their evidence to the inquest, the police officers said Mr Stanley had turned around and pointed the plastic bag at them as if it were a shotgun. Dr Chan said: "A person who is attacked or believes that he's about to be attacked then can use such force as is reasonably necessary to defend himself. If that's the situation, then his use of force is not unlawful."

He asked the jurors to ask themselves two questions. "Firstly, did the officer believe or may he honestly have believed that it was necessary to defend himself? If you decide that he was or may have been acting in that belief, then you must go on to answer the second question." The second question was whether the officers had used reasonable force.

He asked jurors to "cover your thoughts" of what the object in Mr Stanley's hands turned out to be and to focus on the circumstances at the time.

After the jury delivered its verdict, Dr Chan offered his sympathy to Mr Stanley's family, but the relatives had not returned to court to hear him. The coroner said his death had come about by "a twist of fate" and a series of coincidences leading up to the shooting. He said the table leg in a plastic bag had been demonstrated to be "uncannily indistinguishable" from that of a sawn-off shotgun.

The Metropolitan Police issued a statement extending its "deepest sympathies" to the Stanley family. It said: "This has been a very stressful time for both officers who, along with their colleagues, are required to confront the most difficult policing situations, often having to make split-second decisions."

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Riot fears for overcrowded jails: From, BBC News Online

Almost all prison Boards of Visitors have serious concerns about the effects of the spiralling prison population in England and Wales, a new study reveals. A total of 53 out of 60 boards were "very troubled" by the overcrowding and there are genuine fears that prison riots could break out as a result. The visitors witnessed higher levels of unrest and threats to safety. These include escalating numbers of assaults and vandalism to cells. The number of inmates has mushroomed to 71,000 - up 4,000 in just 12 months - despite the efforts of Mr Blunkett and Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf to persuade magistrates not to jail offenders for minor crimes.

PRT director Juliet Lyon said: "Reports from Boards of Visitors across the country must act as a wake-up call to government to take action to avoid this looming crisis in our jails.

"Prisoners are being shuttled around the system, deposited in overcrowded jails far from home and then dumped back in the community. "We will all pay a very high price for the damage being done to prisoners and their families. It's definitely on the verge of a crisis without a doubt "Overcrowding has put paid to resettlement and efforts by the Prison Service to prevent reoffending. It is clear that people are spilling out of overcrowded prisons more, not less, likely to offend again." She called for alternatives to custody to be found for all but the most dangerous or persistent offenders.

The survey also showed 18 prisons were said to have returned to "degrading and inhumane" prison conditions caused by cell sharing and excessive time locked up. Eleven boards were concerned about damage to mental health, increased self harm and suicide attempts.

The director general of the Prison Service, Martin Narey, told Newsnight that courts had to get the message that giving criminals very short jail sentences was wasting time and money. He added that prisoners now being forced to share cells designed for one was a "very troubling" situation. "I think that doubling up is pretty gross, to be frank, and tonight and every night about 13,000 men are sharing a cell meant for one - and sharing a toilet in that cell. Paul Haley, Governor of Chelmsford prison told the programme the overcrowding was now critical. "It's definitely on the verge of a crisis without a doubt," he said. "Some 71,000 prisoners were locked up at the end of last week and we're just not geared up to cope with those sort of numbers.

"We're definitely in crisis, there's no two ways about it."

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