Press TV Report on Belmarsh Hunger Strike

Muslim prisoners in one of Britain’s most notorious jails have said that they’ve gone on hunger strike in protest against what they call the authorities’ mistreatment of them. The prisoners say the authorities are turning a blind eye to attacks on them, as well as depriving them of sleep and ignoring requests for medical treatment. Roshan Muhammed Salih in London reports.

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Source: Press Tv

Muslim Detainees in Belmarsh Prison Go on Hunger Strike

The al-Maqrizi Center has received a letter from the families of Muslim detainees and prisoners in Bell Marsh Prison in the United Kingdom, stating that (Class A) prisoners and detainees in Belmarsh Prison had decided to launch an open hunger strike beginning Thursday 9 April due to a systematic campaign on the part of the prison administration to persecute Muslim prisoners and detainees, discriminate between them and non-Muslim prisoners, and conduct a humiliating and provocative campaign of inspection of any Muslim (strip searching them naked as their mothers bore them)!
The Belmarsh administration continues its crimes against their most basic devotional and familial rights by restricting their rights as stipulated in the regulations for British and world prisons.
The Belmarsh prison is located in the southeast of London and is a modern prison in the style of an American high-security prison, tantamount to an electronic jungle containing some of the leaders of the Irish Republican Army. It is in reality an infamous prison that has been called the “British Bastille” or the Guantanamo of the United Kingdom!
Among the most famous of the inmates of the prison currently, who is also taking part in the hunger strike, is Shaykh Abou Hamza al-Masri (Mustafa Kamel) who suffers from a number of illnesses, despite which the British government refuses to release him even under house arrest(!) because of his handicap (he has lost one of his eyes and his hands and has an severe affliction in one of his legs, as well as suffers from high-blood pressure, and diabetes and has special needs as an handicapped person who has lost his hands!)

There is also Baber Ahmed al-Manzour whose case is in the European Court of Human Rights appealing his deportation to America. And there are hundreds of Muslims from all nationalities around the globe but the large majority come from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Based on the above-mentioned:
The al-Maqrizi Center condemns these systematic and continuing campaigns against Muslim prisoners and detainees in British prisons and especially those present in Belmarsh prison! We hold the British government completely responsible for the suffering of those Muslims in Belmarsh and elsewhere. At the same time we demand organziations concerned
Al-Maqrizi Center for Historical Studies
London
Monday, 17 Rabi’ al-Thani 1430
13 April 2009

Britain’s Guantánamo: An Introduction

In a series of articles this week, Andy Worthington, journalist and author of The Guantánamo Files, follows up on a Parliamentary meeting in the House of Commons on Monday — “Britain’s Guantánamo? The use of secret evidence and evidence based on torture in the UK courts,” chaired by Diane Abbott MP — with four articles examining how and why the British government has turned its back on the principles of open justice, and five statements made by prisoners held on the basis of secret evidence.

The schedule of publication is as follows:

Tuesday March 31: The first article, Torture taints all our lives, appeared in the Guardian’s Comment is free.

Wednesday April 1: The second article, Britain’s Guantánamo: Calling For An End To Secret Evidence, is a report about Monday’s meeting, and is accompanied by statements made by three prisoners held under house arrest or imprisoned on the basis of secret evidence (Detainees Y, BB and U), which were read out by actors at the meeting on Monday. For the three statements, see: Five Stories From Britain’s Guantánamo: (1) Detainee Y, Five Stories From Britain’s Guantánamo: (2) Detainee BB and Five Stories From Britain’s Guantánamo: (3) Detainee U.

Thursday April 2: On Thursday I published statements made by two other prisoners held under house arrest or imprisoned on the basis of secret evidence (Hussain Al-Samamara and Detainee Z), which were also read out by actors at the meeting on Monday. For the two statements, see: Five Stories From Britain’s Guantánamo: (4) Hussain Al-Samamara and Five Stories From Britain’s Guantánamo: (5) Detainee Z.

Friday April 3: A third article, Britain’s Guantánamo: Fact or Fiction?, compares and contrasts the regimes implemented by the Bush administration at Guantánamo, and the British government in the UK, looking in particular at both governments’ attempts to bypass their obligations. under the UN Convention Against Torture, not to return foreign nationals to countries where they face the risk of torture.

Monday April 6: A final article, Britain’s Guantánamo: The Secret Terror Court Rules, examines the latest ruling by SIAC (the Special Immigrations Appeals Commission) in the cases of the five men discussed above. The secret court’s ruling regarding the Home Secretary’s application to revoke their bail took place two weeks ago, but received no media coverage whatsoever.

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed, and see here for my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, published in March 2009.

For other articles dealing with Belmarsh, control orders, deportation bail, deportations and extraditions, see Deals with dictators undermined by British request for return of five Guantánamo detainees (August 2007), Britain’s Guantánamo: the troubling tale of Tunisian Belmarsh detainee Hedi Boudhiba, extradited, cleared and abandoned in Spain (August 2007), Guantánamo as house arrest: Britain’s law lords capitulate on control orders (November 2007), The Guantánamo Britons and Spain’s dubious extradition request (December 2007), Britain’s Guantánamo: control orders renewed, as one suspect is freed (February 2008), Spanish drop “inhuman” extradition request for Guantánamo Britons (March 2008), UK government deports 60 Iraqi Kurds; no one notices (March 2008), Repatriation as Russian Roulette: Will the Two Algerians Freed from Guantánamo Be Treated Fairly? (July 2008), Abu Qatada: Law Lords and Government Endorse Torture (February 2009), Ex-Guantánamo prisoner refused entry into UK, held in deportation centre (February 2009), Home Secretary ignores Court decision, kidnaps bailed men and imprisons them in Belmarsh (February 2009), Britain’s insane secret terror evidence (March 2009).

Source: andyworthington.co.uk