|
Kevan Thakrar in Solitary Confinement for 8 years in the UK Please write to your MP!
|
|
|
Dear friends,
Kevan Thakrar has been in solitary
confinement in UK prisons for more than eight years. The UN has
called for “an absolute prohibition” on solitary
confinement over 15 days, while Amnesty International calls it “cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment”.
Mr Thakrar was first put in
solitary confinement after he was
exonerated in relation to a charge of assaulting prison
officers. As a man of colour, he has been a consistent target
for racism by staff.
We are campaigning to have Mr Thakrar
released into general population immediately and need your help.
Please write to your MP. Below (and attached) you will find a
template letter which has more details about Mr Thakrar’s
situation which you can adapt as you choose and
forward to your MP. You can find the email address of your
MP here.
Please also consider writing to Kevan and
telling him what you are doing about his case. His address is:
Kevan Thakrar A4907AE Or email him using www.emailaprisoner.com Check out http://justiceforkevan.org/ Please let us know that you have taken action by cc’ing us at payday@paydaynet.org Yours, Niki Adams, Legal Action for Women Sam Weinstein, Payday
Refusing to kill or be killed ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Template MP Letter in Support of Kevan Thakrar
Dear xxx MP:
As one of your constituents, I am asking for
you to please intervene in the case of Kevan Thakrar prisoner (A4907AE)
who has been held in
solitary confinement (in a Close Supervision Centre – (CSC)) for
more than eight years.
Until July 2018 he was being
held in HMP Long Lartin where he was confined to his cell for
more than 23 hours a day. His cell was filthy, stank and was
infested with insects. As a result of protests and intervention
by a member of parliament, he was moved to a “small-group
isolation wing” in HMP Whitemoor and had more access to various
facilities. However, shortly afterwards, giving a spurious
reason that he was “not engaging with staff”, the
prison moved him back
onto a restrictive regime, confined to his cell for 23 hours a
day.
Mr Thakrar was first put in
solitary confinement over eight years ago after
he was exonerated in relation to a charge of assaulting prison
officers. It came out in court that Mr Thakrar had acted in self
defence after himself being attacked by guards and being “physically
and sexually abused by staff”
-- some of which “regarded all non-white prisoners as Muslims
and subjected them to constant anti-Muslim abuse”.
Recent evidence of
racism within the prison system also raises concerns that Mr
Thakrar may be being targeted because he is a man of colour.
[IF
YOU WANT, PLEASE ADD SOMETHING ABOUT YOURSELF AND WHY YOU ARE
CONCERNED]
The isolation that Mr Thakrar is
subjected to is in breach of International
law for the treatment of prisoners. The UN
Special Rapporteur on torture called for “an absolute
prohibition” of “indefinite and prolonged solitary confinement
in excess of 15 days”.Amnesty
International condemned
CSC (known as Special Security Units at the time) saying that
the lack of adequate exercise, sport, educational and work
facilities, natural daylight and long-distance vision and
adequate medical treatment, “constitute cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment.” As far as I understand, the only justification for keeping someone in isolation is that they are a danger to others. But Mr Thakrar has not been convicted of any violent incidents during the 11 years he has been imprisoned. In 2014, a detailed psychological assessment concluded that his risk levels are so low that there is no reason for him to remain in the CSC. Mr Thakrar points to evidence that he is being discriminated against -- other prisoners who have been convicted of violence, including attacks which resulted in the death of fellow inmates, remain in general population. There is also evidence which indicates that Mr Thakrar’s original conviction, based as it was on the discredited theory of Joint Enterprise and unreliable identification and hearsay evidence, was a miscarriage of justice. For more information on the case please go to: http://justiceforkevan.org/. Can you please represent me on this matter and ask the minister responsible for an explanation, and investigate in other ways why Mr Thakrar has been in solitary for so many years. If the prison authorities claim to have good reasons for refusing to release Mr Thakrar into general population then that decision must be publicised so that it can be subjected to public scrutiny,
I feel strongly that we must insist on a high standard of care
and accountability from those that have responsibility for
prisoners. The treatment of Mr Thakrar has been appalling and
the issue must be immediately remedied.
Yours sincerely, Sajid Javid, Home Secretary, privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk Rory Stewart, Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) rory.stewart.mp@parliament.uk Richard Burgon, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, richard@richardburgon.com |
|
