An open letter to Her Majesty’s Government

This is an open letter to the Prime Minister, Rt Hon David Cameron MP; Deputy Prime Minister, Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP; Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP; Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Rt Hon William Hague MP; the Minister of State for Europe, David Lidington MP; and the Minister of State for the Foreign Office (human rights), Jeremy Browne MP.

Dear Sirs,

I would like, at the outset of this letter, to draw your attention to Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that:

“1. In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. [...]

2. Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.

3. Everyone charged with a criminal offence has the following minimum rights:
(a) to be informed promptly, in a language which he understands and in detail, of the nature and cause of the accusation against him;
(b) to have adequate time and the facilities for the preparation of his defence;
(c) to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing or, if he has not sufficient means to pay for legal assistance, to be given it free when the interests of justice so require;
(d) to examine or have examined witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him;
(e) to have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak the language used in court.”

Ministers should be aware that, at the same time that they were waiting to discover if they were to be offered a ministerial role in the coalition government, a former fireman from Kent was being bundled onto an aircraft by Interpol, bound for a Portuguese jail.

Garry Mann has suffered for six years at the absurd legal systems of, firstly, Portugal, then the United Kingdom. He fought a long battle against extradition for a crime he protests that he did not commit – protestations that, whilst I believe them, I do not wish to form the substantive part of this letter.

Ministers’ predecessors now facing them on the Opposition benches in the House of Commons knew Mr Mann’s case well – after all, his was one of the most high-profile, grossly unfair trials any honest British citizen and British taxpayer has ever been subject to within the European Union.

To have been tried in Portuguese as one of a group of people being charged with offences that they had not been properly informed of, within 48 hours, without a dedicated lawyer and without a proper interpretor practically shreds every right afforded to every European citizen under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, yet that is what happened to Mr Mann!

And then, to have been returned to Britain, to be released on bail by Magistrates (yes, lowly Magistrates!) who realised at the outset that Mr Mann had received a grossly unfair trial, which, under the laws of any humane and civilised country, should not have been legal, only to face six years of hell from both Portugal and Britain – hell that cost Mr Mann his job – merely served to add to the growing list of what I can only call human rights crimes against a British citizen.

When Portugal issued a European Arrest Warrant against the football fan and fireman, a system introduced under Labour to help fight the spread of terrorism across Europe not tourists wrongfully accused and unfairly treated, the Labour government almost without hesitation waved the white flag and signalled to Mr Mann that he was fighting his battle alone.

Fortunately, Fair Trials International took his case. Ministers should be aware that at every stage of every appeal made on behalf of Mr Mann, courts and judges of the British legal system sympathised with Mr Mann and agreed that he had indeed suffered a grossly unfair trial, but that, under a ludicrous system that ensures that our own courts cannot protect the rights of our own citizens, they were powerless to help.

British judges could not protect a British citizen facing two years in jail for a crime for which he was unfairly tried and convicted because the issue was outside the remit of the British courts. I invite Ministers to consider just how ludicrous that proposition is.

On May 12 of this year, whilst Ministers were waiting to be invited to their new roles in the coalition government, Garry Mann was extradited to Portugal to serve two years in prison – away from his partner and six children – despite British judges, from Magistrates to the Court of Appeal, agreeing that he should not be there.

Mr Mann has his appeal sat with the European Court of Human Rights, but Ministers should be aware that judgement may not be made until two years time – by which time Mr Mann will already have been falsely imprisoned for the two years sentenced upon him.

I urge Ministers to consider this case very carefully, and consider with their ministerial teams if there is any course of action available to them that can halt this travesty until the European Court of Human Rights has passed judgement – or until Portugal affords Mr Mann a fair trial, whichever is the soonest.

I further urge Ministers to scrap our unwavering commitment to the European Arrest Warrant, and to give British courts power to halt the extradition of ordinary British citizens where it is clear that gross breaches of their human rights have been recognised by British judges.

I urge Ministers to make persistent representations to the Portuguese government until they realise how badly they have mis-treated one of our citizens, and how Ministers in this government will not tolerate it happening again.

Mr Mann and his family have suffered for six long years, and I fervently believe that he has more than served time for the alleged offence already.

Therefore, above all else I, urge Ministers to explore their options and do all they can to bring Mr Mann back home to his family, where he belongs.

In the sincerest of hope that you will do the right thing,

Yours faithfully

Alan W Collins

Photograph reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License fromFreeFoto.com.