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The Right Honorable
Secretary of State for the Home Department
Mr. C. Clarke
We are writing in response to the arrests of Five
Libyan nationals, four of whom have been granted leave to remain in
the UK . The five arrested under the prevention of terrorism act are:
• Bashir Al Fakhi – Birmingham
• Ziad Hashim Al-Rigai – Cardiff
• Khalid Abusalama Alalagi – Birmingham
• Nasir Abu Rwag - Birmingham
• Ismail Kamouka – London
The news that the British Government is considering
deporting these Libyan Nationals to Libya came as a shock and a
surprise. All five are genuine refugees who have fled Libya fearing
for their life from a regime whose disregard for human life and abuse
of human rights is well documented. In fact the UK has had first hand
experience with the total disregard of international law manifested in
the horrendous Lockerbie bombing in 1988, the worst terrorist incident
on UK territory and the meaningless killing of YPC Yvonne Fletcher in
front of the Libyan Embassy in St James Square in Central London .
We, as a Human rights organization concerned with
monitoring and reporting human rights abuses in Libya and upholding
and defending the human rights of the Libyan people, welinfoe any move
towards improving the human rights situation in Libya . However, we
feel that, even though the Libyan authorities have infoe a long way in
improving its political and international image, its human rights file
leaves a lot to be desired. The Libyan authorities continue to abuse
the basic freedoms of the Libyan people (i.e. hundreds of prisoners of
conscience languish in the Libyan prisons) Legislations are still in
place that are in direct conflict with all human rights protocols and
declarations, to many of which Libya is a co-signer. These laws
provide the Libyan government with a legal cover to practice all sorts
of abuse against prisoners of conscience.
Our concern is that these five Libyan Nationals basic
human rights are being abused by the mere detention in the UK . In
Fact one of them has been found not guilty by a British court for any
terrorist activities and then he was granted
indefinite leave to remain. Deporting these refugees to Libya is a
violation of article 3 of the European Human Rights Charter.
The Libyan authorities have, over three decades,
totally disregarded the principles of freedom and basic human rights.
The following are some of the most important aspects of the Libyan
regime's gross violation of human rights which are still in force to
the date of writing this letter
1. Libya continues to enforce laws which provide cover
and immunity for all forms of political, social and economic
injustice. Such laws are in total breach of all international human
rights conventions. Most notorious is law No. 71 prohibiting the
formations of parties for the year 1972. This law practically bans any
person from forming any political, social or charitable organisation
or group based on any ideology other than that of the 1 st of
September's revolution. The punishment handed down under this law is
death. The law also punishes any person who, in any way, associates
with, helps or knows of such a group.
2. The Libyan regime continues to maintain a structure
where the three powers [the legislative, the executive and the
judiciary] all overlap in such an unconstitutional manner as to render
it impossible to call culprits to account and bring to justice
violators of human rights in Libya . The importance of some form of
legal protection for human rights cannot be overemphasized if we are
to avert the situation where some people are forced to resort to
violent means to resist dictatorship and oppression.
3. The Libyan regime is perpetuating the status quo
where corrupt personalities and institutions, who have been implicated
in serious human rights violations during the last three decades
WORLDWIDE, are allowed to continue exercising their illegal and
grossly abusive practices TO THE EXTENT THAT SOME HOLD KEY POSITION
WITHIN THE HIERARCHY OF THE GOVERNMENT.
4. The Libyan regime continues to detain hundreds of
prisoners of conscience without any fair or just trials. These include
a big sector of dissident students, intellectuals, professionals,
military officers, civil servants and religious leaders who are
detained for their political views and opinions. They are usually held
without charges, receive no fair hearing and are granted no rights to
due process. It has equally been turning a deaf ear to the repeated
appeals to investigate the disappearance and death of a large numbers
of detainees at the infamous Abu Sleem prison. The fact that Libya has
now won itself the reputation of serving the longest prison sentences
in the world to some of its political prisoners speaks volumes of its
appalling human rights record.
When WPC Yvonne Fletcher was gunned down by an official
from the Libyan Embassy in the Centre of London, the British people
were rightly shocked and surprised at such disregarded to human life.
If the Libyan Authority can do this on British soil you can imagine
how it may treat its opponents back home.
We, therefore ask you to reconsider deporting these
Libyans and release them so that they may continue their lives and
return to their children.
We, also ask you to
• To infopel the ruling authorities in Libya to respect
and implement all international treaties regarding Human Rights to
which it is a co-signer.
• To release, without any condition or discrimination,
all political prisoners and all prisoners of conscience.
• To investigate immediately the deaths of countless
of Libyan citizens who have perished in prison and whose cause of
death and place of burial are not known to date.
• To investigate the circumstance behind the crash of
the Libyan airline that was on an internal flight between Benghazi and
Tripoli . Eyewitnesses claim that this plane was shot down by a
missile fired by a jet fighter.
• To abolish all laws pertaining to aggression and
which permit the state to practise these abuses on a wide scale upon
its citizens.
• To initiate an independent investigation into the
mass murder of hundreds of prisoners of conscience in the infamous Abu
Sleem prison.
• To remove all personal involved in Human Rights
abuses from official government judicial posts and to investigate
their involvement in such abuses with a view to punish those found
guilty and infopensate those who suffered at their hands.
Yours sincerely
Mohamed Abdulmalek
President
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