As highlighted in Asian Dub Foundation’s 'Free Satpal Ram', Satpal Ram was sentenced to life imprisonment over eleven years ago as the result of defending himself form a racist attack in Birmingham by 6 racists, which saw him glassed in the face, one of his assailants was injured, and after refusing medical treatment, died. Satpal was charged with murder, and provided with lawyers who suggested he plead guilty to manslaughter and refused to defend him. In Court no interpreter was provided to translate to the jury and legal officials, none of whom spoke Bengali. The jury was not asked to consider if Satpal’s actions were in self-defence, and without an interpreter, could never be guaranteed of a opportunity to present his side of events.
Earlier this week though, an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights by lawyer Dennis Stafford has been upheld regarding this case. As a result, the Home Secretary was bound by law to free Satpal as the ruling makes Satpal's continued detention after the parole boards recommendation to release him illegal.
According to an email sent out by the Miscarriages of Justice UK organisation and as reported in the Guardian, Satpal Ram is about to be released imminently. (actually, we had this info on Wednesday, but that’s press embargo’s for you) Danuel Guedalla, lawyer of Satpal Ram, said: "It does not mean (the government) accept he is innocent and he is still challenging his wrongful conviction. This is a victory but not a complete vindication."
On the other hand, I wonder just what the next cause Primal Scream will rally around will be...hang on, is that a bandwagon i see going past?
Freed Satpal Ram
Re: Freed Satpal Ram
(i'll give him credit for "Swastika Eyes" being easily one of the best singles of the past 10 years if nothing else! LOL)
Re: Freed Satpal Ram
Re: Freed Satpal Ram
Re: Freed Satpal Ram
Re: Freed Satpal Ram
Mere 'provocation' (which includes supposed self-defence that falls short of being necessary /reasonable) reduces murder to manslaughter - you were probably thinking of that.
On Satpal's side of the story (which the jury didn't even get to hear, let alone properly consider), he was being stabbed in the face by the racist thugs - which definately justifies fighting back and hence he committed (as ADF are correct in saying) "no offence".
Re: Freed Satpal Ram
Freed Satpal Ram
Freed Satpal Ram
http://geocities.com/satpalramisguilty/
which contains massive documentation on his crime
for the benefit of AsianGrubFoundation and all the other braindeads, Ram was rearrested in April this year after being unlawfully at large following allegations of assault and criminal damage. He assaulted the police officers who came to arrest him.
Some working class hero...
free
yes a-baron.....
some working class hero....
Same as with Mumia Abu Jamal who is convicted for murder in Philladelphia...Mumia’s early association with the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther Party marked him as a subversive to George Fencl, the chief inspector of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Civil Defense Bureau. His subsequent sympathetic coverage of MOVE while reporting for the local public radio station made him an avowed enemy of Mayor Frank Rizzo. Minutes after Officer Faulkner was shot at 3:55 a.m., Inspector Alfonzo Giordano–who reported directly to Fencl–took command of the crime scene and personally set in motion the framing of Abu-Jamal. It would be Giordano who claimed that Mumia told him in the paddy wagon that he dropped his gun after he shot Faulkner; it would be Giordano who arranged for prostitute Cynthia White and felon Robert Chobert to identify Abu-Jamal as the shooter. Giordano and White would be the D.A. office’s only witnesses at the preliminary hearing to hold Abu-Jamal over for trial where Giordano repeated this “confession.”The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal represents an enormous miscarriage of justice, representing an extreme example of prosecutorial abuse and judicial bias. What makes getting to the truth about this case so difficult for people, particularly people in Philadelphia, is that the prosecution built its case on perjured testimony with a calculated disregard for what the actual evidence established. The local media bought into the prosecution’s story line early on and has never been able to see this case for what it is: a framing of an innocent and peace-loving man.
Two things account for the unprecedented national and international interest in this case. First and foremost is the man himself. Despite more than 25 years of the bleakest existence possible in isolation on death row, Mumia Abu-Jamal remains what he has always been: an articulate, compassionate righter of wrongs. The second thing that makes this case so compelling to such a wide audience is that his trial represents such a monumental abuse of government power to railroad one man that it really says no citizen is truly free until this wrong has been undone.