Diary of Dennis Edney Speaking Tour (12-20 March 2014)

The LGC invited Canadian former Guantánamo child prisoner Omar Khadr's lawyer Dennis Edney QC to the UK for a speaking tour to raise awareness about his client who remains in prison in Canada on 12-20 March 2014. One of the organisers, Val Brown, attended all the tour engagements in London.

by Val Brown, London Guantánamo Campaign

 

Saturday 8 March 2014         

Although the speaking tour started on 12 March, Dennis Edney arrived in London on the previous Saturday. I met him for a coffee and although he was tired from his long trip, we had an interesting conversation about Omar Khadr and discussed the itinerary for his speaking tour.

Wednesday 12 March 2014   

Dennis’ first speaking engagement as part of the tour was at Garden Court Chambers in Lincoln's Inn Fields. He gave a talk, Omar Khadr and the Betrayal of International Law, at a public meeting, chaired by Professor Bill Bowring, jointly organised by us, the Campaign against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC),  and the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. He spoke to an audience of lawyers and others in the  legal profession. His first talk was a very powerful and heartfelt speech on the destruction of law, justice and civil liberties under the “War on Terror” and set the tone for the rest of the tour.

Dennis proved himself to be a real trooper as he was already beginning to feel unwell and suffering from a sore throat.

Photographs by Richard Keith Wolff: http://www.demotix.com/news/4173143/dennis-edney-canadian-lawyer-gives-talk-haldane-society

Thursday 13 March 2014       

Dennis spent the day in York where he gave a talk entitled Defending Guantánamo's youngest prisoner: The struggle to Free Omar Khadr at the University of York organised by the Centre for Applied Human Rights. I did not attend this event and the LGC does not have any footage of this event.

Friday 14 March 2014

There were two meetings on Friday:

1.00-2.00pm   

At lunchtime, the University College London Faculty of Laws held An audience with Dennis Edney QC. Dr Douglas Guilfoyle from the law school was unable to attend and one of my colleagues chaired the meeting instead.

The talk was aimed at university students. It was well received with a very interesting Q & A at the end. Unfortunately the video recording does not include the end of the meeting.

5.00-7.00pm

In the evening, the Westminster Law Review at the University of Westminster Law School organised a seminar Where is the Law in War?     

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Again, aimed at (law) students, this talk was well received by all who attended.

Monday 17 March

We gave Dennis the weekend off and were ready to go again on Monday afternoon. There were two events on this day as well:

2.00-4.00pm

Dennis Edney QC with the tour organisers

In the afternoon, a coalition of student societies at Birkbeck College, University of London, organised a talk Omar Khadr: Guantánamo's Child: A Travesty of Justice

Dennis was unfortunately rather unwell by this time and taking medication for chest and throat infections; however, this did not stop him from giving it his all at this talk. 

7.00-8.30pm

Photo credit: Richard Keith Wolff

In the evening, Dennis Edney talked about Omar Khadr at a meeting organised  by Veterans for Peace UK to a capacity audience at Housmans Bookshop, near King's Cross. Dennis Edney spoke along with Ben Griffin, an ex-SAS soldier who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. They discussed the torture and abuse of Omar and other prisoners and how torture has become “the norm” within all ranks of the coalition forces (UK,US & others).

Dennis Edney, Glenn Fitzpatrick and Ben Griffin. Photo credit: Richard Keith Wolff

 

A very good Q & A discussion followed with great input from the audience, after they had recovered from the shock everyone felt as they listened to Dennis and Ben talk not just about the abuse and torture inflicted on Omar (and others), but the ease with which normally decent people can be enticed and encouraged to carry out such atrocities.

Photographs by Richard Keith Wolff: http://www.demotix.com/news/4243748/dennis-edney-qc-joins-former-soldier-ben-griffin-veterans-peace

Tuesday 18 March

The tour continued and there were a number of engagements on this day.

11.00am – 1.00pm

Dennis was supposed to speak at a meeting at the London School of Economics organised by the student union.

Unfortunately, he was not well enough to attend and so I gave an informal talk about Omar before a showing of the film of Omar Khadr's interrogation by the Canadian intelligence services (CSIS) at Guantánamo in February 2003 You don't Like the Truth 4 days Inside Guantánamo.

 

This was followed by a Q & A. Some of the students who attended were visibly shaken by the film as they could empathise with Omar and the pain he went through.

4.30-5.30pm

In the afternoon the Queen Mary’s University Amnesty society held a meeting about Omar Khadr. Dennis was able to attend this event and spoke to an audience of mainly young students who listened in disbelief to the horrors inflicted on Omar and asked many questions of how it could happen and what they could do to stop it happening to others.

7.00-9.00pm

In the evening, Amnesty International UK organised an event, Defending Guantánamo's Youngest Prisoner, where Dennis was joined by Aaf Post from the Free Omar Khadr Now campaign and Andy Worthington, journalist and author of The Guantánamo Files.

Aaf showed a presentation of how she first learnt about Omar when the film You Don't Like the Truth was shown on television in the Netherlands where she is from, of her need to do something and the creation of the global Free Omar Khadr Now campaign, how it has now become the official campaign website for Omar, and the work being done to help Dennis win Omar's freedom.

Dennis spoke of his legal journey to free Omar and Andy spoke about his investigative journalism to bring the world’s attention to Guantánamo and the War OF Terror.

It was a very intense evening which had the audience of 60+ spellbound in disbelief that the world has lost its way regarding justice and human rights.

As the event was organised by Amnesty, no filming took place.

Afterwards, Dennis, Andy, Aaf and me went for a quiet meal where we had an interesting discussion about Omar and the rule of law.

Thursday 20 March 7.30-9.00pm

The final meeting to end the tour was a Q & A with Dennis Edney organised by the local Amnesty group in St. John's Wood, north London. The tour ended on a high and I can do no better than share my colleague Noel Hamel's account of the final event of what was a very enlightening and successful tour:

Noel Hamel: “At St John's Wood we had barely started with about 15 people when others appeared at the doors - then, they just kept coming!

It seems that a couple of local secondary school teachers had told their classes about the event and EVERYONE decided to come.

Extra chairs and doors opened into a second room but still it was standing room only. I was exhausted though Dennis did all the talking of course.

As an armchair socialist I could read and regurgitate but from Dennis it is the real thing. They may not realise it but those school kids were amongst the luckiest on the planet.  Dennis was of course terrific and the style of his delivery gave the story enormous impact. Even though I have heard him tell the stories several times I still find it emotionally draining to realise the gratuitous and deliberate cruelty of Guantánamo and its processes.”

Dennis Edney QC with tour organisers Aisha Maniar, Aaf Post and Val Brown. Photo credit: Richard Keith Wolff

LGC Newsletter – March 2014

NEWS:

British residents:

Shaker Aamer has dropped his torture case against MI6 in the hope that this will allow him to return home to his family in the UK. Since 2011, the metropolitan police have been investigating claims he made that MI6 officers were present when he was tortured in Afghanistan before being sent to Guantánamo Bay. He has said that he hopes by dropping the criminal case MI6 will drop its objections to him returning to the UK. Aamer has never faced any charges or a trial in over 12 years. The British government has been seeking his return since 2007.

www.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-2592512%2FShaker-Aamer-Briton-held-Guantanamo-drops-torture-claims-freedom-bid.html

Close Guantánamo demonstration on 29 March

Guantánamo Bay:

Emad Abdullah Hassan, a 34-year old Yemeni prisoner, who was cleared for release in 2009 and has never been charged, successfully brought a first case by a Guantánamo prisoner to challenge the methods used by the US military to force feed hunger-striking prisoners. Lawyers for Hassan claim that he has been force fed more than 5000 times since 2007, when he went on permanent hunger strike. As a result of the methods used, he has suffered substantial internal damage and is very ill. This is the first time that a federal US court has considered the legality and heard about how the force-feeding methods used are in contravention of accepted rules. Mr Hassan’s lawyers argued that the methods used are tantamount to torture. This is the first such case since a court ruling in February that allowed the prisoners to challenge these methods and the conditions of their detention. In a statement, Emad Hassan said, “All I want is what President Obama promised – my liberty, and fair treatment for others. I have been cleared for five years, and I have been force-fed for seven years. This is not a life worth living, it is a life of constant pain and suffering. While I do not want to die, it is surely my right to protest peacefully without being degraded and abused every day.”

http://www.reprieve.org/2014_03_11-Guantánamo -prisoner-launches-historic-legal-challenge-to-force-feeding-abuse.html

Former British resident Ahmed Belbacha was returned to his family in Algeria on 13 March. Belbacha, 44, had never been tried or charged in over 12 years of detention at Guantánamo Bay. He had previously lived in Bournemouth for over 18 months and the LGC campaigned for him for many years as a British resident. Although the British government never sought to have Belbacha returned to the UK, considering him a failed asylum seeker, he had previously expressed a wish not to return to Algeria and to a safe third country instead; in 2009, he was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison there following an unfair trial. However, his return now is in accordance with his wishes and those of his family. Belbacha is likely to be detained temporarily, as have all others returned Algerians, before being released to his family. As with other prisoners released to Algeria, his lawyers will continue to monitor his well-being. He had been involved in the ongoing hunger strike. 154 prisoners remain at Guantánamo Bay; Ahmed Belbacha is the only person who has been released this year.

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/gitmo_cleared_ahmed_belbacha_returns_to_algeria/

The US has been in negotiations with several Latin American countries including Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay concerning sending several Guantánamo prisoners to them who have been cleared for release but cannot be returned to their own countries. A Colombian minister has expressed concerns about Guantánamo prisoners being sent there. On the other hand, the Uruguayan president José Mujica has responded positively, stating that the country would be able to host up to 6 prisoners and that they would be held as ordinary refugees and not as political prisoners or subject to any specific restrictions. Reports have stated that Uruguay may accept 4 Syrian prisoners and a Palestinian who have been cleared for release but cannot return home. Other reports have stated that Mujica may ask the US to release 3 Cuban prisoners as well in return for his goodwill gesture. Mujica had previously been a political prisoner himself.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/24/4016302/mujica-guantanamo-detainees-could.html

Dennis Edney speaks in London on 11 March

Former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Khadr is currently being held at a military hospital in Saskatchewan, Canada, following surgery to a shoulder injury he sustained in Afghanistan in 2002 and which has not been treated in his past 12 years of incarceration at Guantánamo and in Canada. Earlier this year, he was transferred to a medium-security prison. During the operation, bone was scrapped away from the wound which has remained untreated all these years. He is now recovering from the operation. Damage to his eye in 2002 has also remained untreated to date.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/omar-khadr-in-saskatchewan-prison-hospital-after-surgery-on-damaged-shoulder/article17675511/

A recent visit by US president Barack Obama to Europe saw anti-Guantánamo protests greet him in Brussels, outside a meeting at the European Parliament. Among other matters, including drone warfare, the United Nations Human Rights Committee criticised the US over the continuing existence of Guantánamo in its country report.

It has emerged that two soldiers serving at Guantánamo Bay have been accused of rape by female soldiers of lower ranks. Both were facing sentence, however one has since has the charges against him dropped in return for discharge from the army. A trial will be held involving another soldier in early April accused of raping a female soldier last year and sexually assaulting two others.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/28/4025367/military-resolves-a-guards-guantanamo.html

Extraordinary Rendition

Irish peace activist Margaretta D’Arcy, 79, was released 9 and half weeks into a three-month sentence for opposing the use of Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland by the US military as a stopover point for drone aircrafts, transport of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan and for rendition flights. In spite of denial of involvement in rendition flights by the Irish government, activists and human rights organisations, including United Nations’ bodies, have all insisted Ireland must investigate its involvement inthe facilitation of torture flights through Shannon Airport.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/activist-margaretta-darcy-released-from-prison-30116391.html

March demo at Marble Arch

LGC Activities:

The March “Shut Guantánamo!” demonstration was attended by 3 people. The April

demonstration will be at the regular time of 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Marble Arch on Thursday 3 April: https://www.facebook.com/events/607010606047964/ This demonstration will also commemorate the 11^th anniversary of the Iraq War.

The LGC hosted a series of talks in London and York on 11-20 March given by Canadian lawyer Dennis Edney QC to raise awareness about his client Omar Khadr. The talks were very well attended. Many of the events were filmed.

The LGC supported a “Close Guantánamo” demonstration organised by students from the University of Westminster Amnesty Society outside the US Embassy London on 29 March. Around 20 people attended the demonstration.