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Stop the government hiding torture evidence
From Reprieve: We need your help to prevent the government's assault on open justice – please add your voice to the Green Paper on Justice and Security consultation.
We need your help to prevent the government's assault on open justice – please add your voice to the Green Paper on Justice and Security consultation.
As a supporter of our work, you will know that Reprieve has always fought to hold the government to account over its role in the abuse, rendition and torture of prisoners.
Through the UK courts we have successfully challenged our security services on their complicity in the torture of Guantanamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed and, more recently, on their role in the rendition of an entire family to Gaddafi’s Libya.
But the government is planning to introduce changes to the legal system which will stop these accountability cases in their tracks, badly damaging our centuries-old tradition of open justice and making it far easier to cover up state involvement in torture.
The Justice and Security Green Paper and why we oppose it
The Green Paper on Justice and Security proposes a massive extension of secrecy into Britain’s court system. Ministers also plan to ban the legal method by which we first found out about the UK’s involvement in Binyam Mohamed’s torture.
What you can do
With your help, we have a real chance to halt these proposed changes before they become law. There are two key actions you can take:
1. Join the consultation process
The Green Paper is currently going though a formal public consultation process, which means that anyone can raise objections and make comments. The deadline for responses is Friday 6 January 2012.
Responses can be emailed to: Justiceandsecurity@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk or posted to: Justice and Security Consultation, Cabinet Office Room 335, 3rdFloor, 70 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2AS.
2. Write to your MP
Use the form below to email your MP, raising your concerns about the Justice and Security Green Paper: Contact Your Politician <http://reprieve.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=6266c64ed8&e=25b4a1297d>
writetothem.com <http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=cebae704cd&e=25b4a1297d>
Points to mention
In your letters and emails, you may want to raise the following points:
(1) Justice The emergence of cases like Binyam Mohamed do not indicate a problem with our justice system, as the Green Paper asserts. Rather, the problem is a spate of unprecedented wrongdoing by the British and American intelligence services. The emergence of these cases shows that the justice system works.
(2) Accountability The proposed ban on Norwich Pharmacal (the legal principle in Binyam Mohamed which addresses complicity in wrongdoing) threatens the accountability of our security services. Plans for a ban must be dropped, to ensure that any Government involvement in wrongdoing remains reviewable by a court.
(3) Transparency There is no need to extend Closed Material Procedures across the board to civil cases. This would needlessly introduce secrecy to the British courts, damaging a centuries-long tradition of open justice. It is entirely unecessary when the current system of Public Interest Immunity is working well.
More information
Click here <http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=d647a3c4bf&e=25b4a1297d> for Reprieve’s briefing on the Justice and Security Green Paper
Click here <http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=d1e77ed5d1&e=25b4a1297d> to view the Justice and Security Green Paper