Abuse of judicial process : the political Molochs

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Abuse of judicial process : the political Molochs

Paul Schofield & Leo McKern : A Man for All Seasons

ALICE (Exasperated, pointing after RICH) While you talk, he's gone!
MORE And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he broke the law!
ROPER So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!
MORE Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
ROPER I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
MORE (Roused and excited) Oh? (Advances on ROPER) And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you-where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? (He leaves him) This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast-man's laws, not God's-and if you cut them down-and you're just the man to do it-d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? (Quietly) Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.
ROPER I have long suspected this; this is the golden calf; the law's your god.
MORE (Wearily) Oh, Roper, you're a fool, God's my god . . . . (Rather bitterly) But I find him rather too (Very bitterly) subtle . . . I don't know where he is nor what he wants.
ROPER My god wants service, to the end and unremitting; nothing else!
MORE (Dryly) Are you sure that's God? He sounds like Moloch. But indeed it may be God- And whoever hunts for me, Roper, God or Devil, will find me hiding in the thickets of the law!

Robert Bolt (A Man for All Seasons)

Once again, England’s senior judges, headed by the Master of the Rolls no less, have called the executive to order, this time for abuse of process. The judgement announced today was couched in strong terms.

Sir Anthony Clarke, the Master of the Rolls, “completely exonerated” Mr Raissi of any connection to the 9/11 attacks.

• The extradition proceedings were a device to secure the appellant’s presence in the US for the purpose of investigating 9/11... We consider that the way in which the extradition proceedings were conducted in this country, with opposition to bail based on allegations which appear unfounded in evidence, amounted to an abuse of process.


• The authorities, the court concluded, had abused the legal process to keep Mr Raissi in prison for almost six months while the FBI conducted inquiries about him.


• The Appeal Court studied the evidence and the detail of the court hearings and concluded that both the CPS and Scotland Yard had presented false evidence to the court hearing the extradition proceedings.


• Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Secretary came in for scathing criticism from senior judges for making false allegations and withholding evidence from the courts in the case of Lotfi Raissi.


• the British authorities used a US extradition warrant “as a device to circumvent the rule of English law” by detaining him for almost six months in Belmarsh prison. (The Times)

The British government has thus been found to have abused the judicial process and the police and crown prosecution service to have conspired with the American security services to stitch up an innocent man. We are used to this sort of behaviour from Burma, Zimbabwe or the USA. We are less used to it in the UK.

Until 2003, no one could be extradited from this country unless and until it had been demonstrated in an English Court that there was a case to answer. Then the law was changed by a Prime Minister who had taken long term residence in Dubya’s colon. From then on, if the USA wanted someone, all they had to do was ask. The one bit of luck that Lotfi Raissi had was that his case started before this appalling piece of legislation. Had his case started a little later, he would have long ago disappeared to Cuba and his own little room in Chateau Halliburton.

How could this happen in the UK?

Part of the problem is the Crown Prosecution Service, a notoriously shambolic and inefficient organisation, detested by real barristers. To return to one of NHS BLOG DOCTORS recurring themes, the CPS is a classic example of the state dumbing down. It is a haven for legal quacktitioners who would not survive at the independent bar and who do not have the training or the courage to stand up to the executive. As always, you get what you pay for.

We must not allow the Molochs - the Blairs, the Bushes, the Chaneys, the Rumselds - to take over. If we dismantle our laws to catch terrorists, the terrorists will have won. We will be left with nothing. In the final analysis, we are not fighting terrorists. We are fighting to preserve the rule of law.

© Copyright NHS BLOG DOCTOR

8 Blogger Comments:

The Blair legacy, eh? Now, about "Once again, England’s senior judges,...": I do hope that these ones don't copy More and torture Protestants at home.

By dearieme, at Thursday, February 14, 2008 11:45:00 PM

A man of his age.

Well, these days I think I would burn the A of C before the Muslims but, come on Dearieme, the rhetoric is Bolt's not More's.

But I agree with it. Most of all, this is all about civilised people living within the law. Which should apply to all.

John

By DrCrippen, at Friday, February 15, 2008 12:09:00 AM

Oi, Doc, how about this?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=514340&in_page_id=1770

By dearieme, at Friday, February 15, 2008 12:31:00 AM

Just read that deariemen

Don't belief it. A GP making a diagnosis. A correct diagnosis. Never heard of that before. Is it fictional do you think?

J

By DrCrippen, at Friday, February 15, 2008 7:21:00 AM

If the CPS or the police present false evidence the judges should hold them in contempt of court, and sling them in prison.

By Tim, at Friday, February 15, 2008 1:02:00 PM

I've found myself instinctively starting posts with "it's all so depressing" recently. How depressing is that?

But back on topic, I was a bitter cynic before this government but now we can write a magnus nefarious opus entirely constructed with corrupt Labour initiatives. Now, I am a fully subscribed omnihater who's ideals have been tortured into a twisted version of some dystopian Judge Dredd type future and the Necromnicon.

Crime: Dragging the country into a vacuous hole of valueless slogans, lack of personal responsibility, gross financial irresponsibility, personal enrichment, persecution... it goes on and on.

Sentence: Banishing to the Seventh reaches of Hell whilst they're forcibly made to atone for their sins by suddenly having a conscience and reviewing their infinite evil ways. They deserve so much worse!!

Arrrrrgh! Now where's that book...

By totallybushed, at Friday, February 15, 2008 7:04:00 PM

The UK also supports the International Criminal Court and the EU arrest warrant. You have voluntarily surrendered just about all of your national sovereignty.

Also, someone arrested in the UK and extradited for trial in the USA would not be sent to Gitmo- it's a prisoner of war camp only.

By ZT, at Saturday, February 16, 2008 1:22:00 AM

someone arrested in the UK and extradited for trial in the USA would not be sent to Gitmo

first, I agree they (probably) wouldn't be sent to Gitmo; the people who've been extradited under this Treaty have been subject to standard US judicial process, and I imagine a candidate for Gitmo would be 'extraordinarily rendered'.

Second,

- it's a prisoner of war camp only.

I thought the US Administration still refused to give the Gitmo detainees POW status? They are surely still called 'unlawful com batants' or 'battlefield detainees' (however remote they were when 'captured' from a battlefield or combat, and whether or not they'd ever really been near either. (The refusal to give POW status relates to the Geneva Conventions: civilians are covered, POWs are covered, but initially, anyway, it was thought these people might not be; there is now a judicial ruling thst say they are.)

By jayann, at Saturday, February 16, 2008 4:57:00 PM