Civil liberties - in brief (9)
01 March 2006
UK: Judges reject "irrational" ethnic cleansing of Islanders: In May the High Court condemned the government's arguments for outlawing Chagos islanders from their homes as "repugnant" and "irrational". Families forced from the British-owned islands almost 40 years ago to facilitate a US military base were illegally banished two judges ruled. The Chagosians were removed from the Indian Ocean archipelago between the mid-1960s and 1970s when the British government acquiesced to US demands to use the island of Diego Garcia as a military base. It is widely considered to be one of the most important US military bases and many commentators believe that it is one of the "black sites" where some of its key rendition (kidnap) victims are sent to be tortured and interrogated. This High Court judgement follows an earlier ruling that also found in favour of the islanders right to return in 2000. However, then-Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, sought an archaic "royal prerogative" (Orders in Council) to overturn the court and bypass Parliament. It was this procedure that Judges Hooper and Cresswell found "irrational". The case was brought by Olivier Bancourt, who was forced from the island of Peros Banhos when he was 4 years old. He said: "This judgement brings us closer to a return to our homeland - a place that we, as the descendant of slaves, were packed on boats and banished from just like slaves", (see Statewatch Vol. 16 no. 1). For further information on the islander's long battle for justice see the excellent writings of John Pilger on the subject, most recently "Out of Eden"
Guardian, 29.5.06; Independent 12.5.06; The Times 23.5.06.
UK: Compensation for miscarriages of justice: On 19 April then-Home Secretary Charles Clarke MP outlined a series of changes to the way in which the government compensates victims of miscarriages of justice. The discretionary compensation scheme will be scrapped. The statutory scheme will continue, but overall payouts will be restricted and the scheme will be capped to a maximum of £500,000. Plans will be brought forward to further limit compensation to applicants who have serious criminal convictions and/or whose conduct "contributed to the situation in which they found themselves." According to Clarke: "The Government is committed to putting victims' interests at the heart of the criminal justice system. These changes will save more than £5 million a year which we will plough back into improving criminal justice and support for victims of crime." A ministerial review would also examine the test used by the Court of Appeal to quash convictions, and examine whether an error in the trial process necessarily means a miscarriage of justice.
Home Office statement 19.4.06.