newsletter September 2001

One Long Year’s Wait – Need for a Mass Protest
Samar and Jawad have been waiting a year for their appeal to resume. This will happen on Tuesday 16th October 2001 and will run for two days. It is essential that we have a visible presence inside and outside court, particularly on the first day. Please organise to come with banners, placards, whistles and songs etc.

Do We Allow the Farce to Continue?
Will we witness the continuation of the farce of the initial appeal when the 3 court judges sat in judgement, alone with the prosecution and security services, whilst the defence lawyers, members of the public and the press had to stand outside in the corridor! Will the prosecution (CPS) and the government continue to deny the appellants access to existing evidence vital for proving their innocence?

We remain extremely alarmed about the success of the appeal for the following reasons:

Defence still denied most of the evidence needed to secure an acquittal;
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has given a dismissive response to a possible new lead concerning evidence handed to the police regarding a potential suspect in 1994
The increasing trend of low rate of success for appeals.

Leading up to the appeal date, we have organised a series of events and activities and we ask supporters and their friends to participate. These are listed below:

Concert - Friday 14th September at 7.30pm
You are invited to an evening of music and poetry at St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, London W1 (nearest tube Piccadilly or Green Park). Tickets: £6 on the door.
Presentation of Petition to Home Office – Picket early October
The Home Office, Queen Anne’s Gate, London SW1 9AT (nearest tube St. James’s Park). We are arranging for an MP or MEP to hand in the petition and for a junior minister to receive it early in October, as well as having a picket outside the Home Office. (details to be confirmed later this month). This year’s petition (also available on-line at: www.PetitionOnline.com/FJSJ/petition.html) which calls for the release of Samar and Jawad and condemns the withholding of vital evidence and the cover-up by the intelligence services, the police and the prosecution, has already collected over 3000 signartures, including from a number of prominent figures within the UK and internationally such as Naom Chomsky, Edward Said, Hanan Ashrawi, Jon Snow, John Pilger, Emma Thompson, Jeremy Hardy, Paul Foot, Chief Editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, Lord Ahmed, Bruce Kent, MPs Dr. Lynne Jones and Brian Sedgemore, Dr. Swee Ang, Michael Rosen, Richard Stone (Jewish Council for Racial Equality), lawyers, academics and those in the literary world.
If you are able to get signatures from people with a public profile, then please let us know by the middle of September (tel. 020 8863 2294) in order for their names to appear on a petition advert in The Guardian and possibly the Independent the week before the appeal hearing.
Fax and E-mail Blitz between 17th and 24th September
We urge supporters to ‘put a spanner in the works’ of the Home Secretary’s and the Crown Prosecution Service offices by inundating them with faxes and e-mails all week between the 17th and 24th September 2001. They need to act to ensure justice is seen to be done.
Some suggestions follow as to what the messages should contain:
E-mail messages to the Home Secretary (gen.ho@gtnet.gov.uk). Do refer to the appeal hearing of Samar Alami and Jawad Botmeh on 16th October 2001 and provide headings such as Quash the Convictions/End the Cover-Up/End the Miscarriage of Justice.

I/we demand that the appeal is not contested and their conviction should be quashed. The continued withholding of the bulk of evidence in the case raises serious doubts about the safety of the convictions and the fairness of the legal process. Under the Human Rights Act it is your duty to ensure the appellants have a right to a fair and open hearing and that the continued miscarriage of justice is put to an end.
Stop denying the defence substantive evidence in the case by means of PII procedures, which has denied the defendants a fair trial and thus undermined the legal process. The appeal is an excellent opportunity to provide them with some redress, and if material cannot be disclosed for reasons other than "human error", then their appeal must not be contested. The longer this goes on, the worse the consequences for this country's justice system and its human rights record.

Fax messages to the Crown
Prosecution Service (CPS) (Fax No. 020 7796 8680):
Do refer to the appeal hearing of Samar Alami and Jawad Botmeh on 16th October 2001 and provide headings such as: End the Cover-up: Do not contest the appeal

At the initial appeal last October 2000, it was revealed that prosecution, police, and intelligence services failed systematically to disclose vital
evidence even to the trial judge. The admitted catalogue of "human errors" by public servants is unprofessional and totally unacceptable. I/we are extremely alarmed that you have been denying the appellants evidence that helps their case of innocence probably because the evidence withheld contradicts the main planks of the case you painted at trial, and hence undermines your contention that there was an "intelligence vacuum". I am also dismayed that there is yet more evidence unconnected to the appellants given to police in 1994 that has never been properly disclosed.
Samar and Jawad convictions are unsafe and their trial has been unfair. This breach of human rights under the recent legislation of the HRA (Human Rights Act) continues to be aggravated by your persistent policy of suppressing the bulk of the evidence. Therefore, it is incumbent upon you to ensure that justice is done and seen to be done. Given the serious flaws and breaches exposed so far in this case, not to mention the fact that the actual bombers are yet to be caught, we ask that you do not contest the appeal. (You can use the enclosed model letters for further information).

More Letter Writing NOW
Before the appeal please use the enclosed model letters to send to the Home Secretary, The Director of Public Prosecutions and your MP and MEP. We are now encouraging supporters to raise the issue with their MEP’s (2 Queen Anne’s Gate, London SW1H). The campaign will be in correspondence with the Human Rights Committee of the European Parliament with particular reference to the human rights breaches, specially Article 6.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning access to evidence and the right to a fair trial.

Other Joint Events in September and October

Fringe meeting organised by PSC
entitled ‘Justice for Palestinians’ at the TUC Conference on Wednesday
10 September at 5.30pm at Brighton Centre, Brighton. This will allow an intervention by the campaign to raise the issue of Samar and Jawad’s plight and to encourage supporters to raise it in their trade unions.
Labour Party Conference on Tuesday 2 October. Fringe meeting organised jointly between PSC & Freedom & Justice for Samar & Jawad at 7.30pm at Brighthelm Community Centre, Brighton. Speakers include Paul Foot, John Austin MP, Afif Safief (Palestinian General Delegate to UK).

Film Documentary Showing
The Lebanese TV documentary made by Future TV about Samar and Jawad, including interviews with both of them and members of the campaign, will be shown on the Lebanese satellite station Future TV on 6-7 September at 6.30pm.
On 24 September Future TV will also host a discussion of the case. The documentary will also be shown on Future TV in Lebanon on 2nd and 3rd of September. This event was launched at a press conference organised by the Campaign Committee in Beirut on 31st August. This was reported in all local TV stations and most of the printed press in Lebanon. The campaign will receive an English version, which we will be screening shortly.

Publications available
• The sequel to our publication ‘Justice Denied’ entitled ‘Cover-up Confirmed – the continuing story of ‘human errors’ published earlier this year is available from the campaign at a cost of £2 (incl. P & P). Or you can download it from our web site.
• Amnesty International’s “Concerns in Europe” July-December 2000: details fair trial concerns of the case of Samar & Jawad, is available via the web at: www.amnesty.org (under documents section)

DONATIONS
With all these activities and events the campaign needs money to hire venues, cover printing, postage, post box costs, be able to offer family members support to travel over for visits particularly during the appeal period, and of course providing Jawad & Samar with the necessary material to make their lives in prison a little easier. Cheques should be made out to FOSA and sent to: BM Box, FOSA, London WC1N 3XX