Sarah's bulletin: Friday 5 February 2010

Dear Friends,

Protest tomorrow about last Londoner in Guantanamo

Tomorrow I will be attending and speaking at a protest in Whitehall opposite Downing Street to demonstrate against the fact that Shaker Aamer, the last Londoner left in Guantanamo, has still not been returned to the UK where his British wife and 4 children live in Battersea. The demo is being organised by the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign and will run from 12noon to 2pm.

Shaker, orginally from Saudi Arabia but a legal UK resident, was probably turned over to the Americans in Afghanistan by bounty-hunters. He was 'rendered' to Guantanamo on 6 February 2002 and has been held there, reportedly suffering regular abuse and kept in isolation, for exactly 8 years now. Throughout these long years he has not been charged, and indeed was originally cleared for release by the Bush administration in 2007.

The exact state of the negotiations between the US and UK governments is shrouded in legal secrecy, but it seems the British government is showing no rush to get him out of Guantanamo and return him to his family in London - including his youngest son who he has never set eyes on. The fear is of some kind of conspiracy to send him back to Saudi Arabia. Then he would be unable to testify about what he knows of M15 possible complicity in his rendition and torture.

Please do come along and join us tomorrow if you can. It seems to me that the Aamer family has suffered enough at the hands of American - and British - injustice!

MEPs reject SWIFT banking access agreement

As was widely expected, the Parliament's civil liberties committee has rejected the interim 'SWIFT' banking information access deal that EU ministers did with the US just before the Lisbon treaty came into force. The agreement allows US counter-terrorism authorities to access a huge mass of information on European financial transactions, and now needs MEPs' consent to stay in force. The whole European Parliament is scheduled to vote on the agreement during our plenary session next week, and we could well reject it, due to the considerable data protection weaknesses such as the immensity of the information that is being transferred, the length of storage and the potential of transfer to other agencies and countries. The only thing that could stop such a result is for EU governments to rapidly share with us their thinking on a better deal for the long-term accord. Security can be maintained in the meantime through other channels of cooperation on investigations.

Garry Mann: European Court of Human Rights EAW extradition ruling

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg this week deferred a ruling on the Garry Mann European Arrest Warrant extradition case until the High Court has come to a conclusion on the pending judicial review that Mann's lawyers have bought before it.

Mann, 51, from Faversham in Kent, was given a two year sentence for his alleged role in football violence during the 2004 European cup in Portugal after a very dubious trial under fast-track procedures which meant everything was over in 48 hours. He was apparently denied proper translation of the proceedings (a hairdresser friend of the judge's wife interpreted some of the trial into English for him but had to go back to work half way through!) and professional legal advice. It is also alleged that police mistreated him and deprived him of sleep.

He was immediately deported back to England but never served his sentence here as the UK authorities said there was then no legal means to enforce it. But the Portuguese authorities are now seeking Mann's extradition back to Portugal under the European Arrest Warrant. Mann's case shows just how urgently defendants' rights need to be boosted as an accompaniment to the EAW which LibDems support in principle and works well in most cases. The UK government has shamefully in the past opposed EU action on defence rights although now it appears to have warmed to the idea. It also begs the question of why UK courts are not invoking their human rights powers and stopping such extraditions in cases of gross injustice - British courts need to stop being so shy about this and step in these sorts of cases. For more details read my press release and notes here.

Obama declines to attend US-EU summit

The US State Department has declared that one of the reasons Obama has decided not to attend the US-EU summit in Madrid in May is because the Lisbon treaty is unclear as to who the US president should meet and when. This is particularly frustrating given that this is precisely the problem that many hoped the Lisbon treaty would resolve.

In some ways I do agree with Obama, in the sense that pre-Lisbon we had a rotating Council presidency + a Commission president + a high representative for common foreign and security policy. Post-Lisbon, we have a rotating Council presidency + a Council president + a Commission president + a EU high rep for foreign policy... we haven't exactly got very far! Arguably the waters have been muddied even more. Growing pains, say some. Mmm... there are ruder verdicts one could deliver! Anyway, if ever there was a message to the EU to 'get your act together', Obama's is it. Spain's insistence that all the big summits this half-year must happen in Madrid has not helped the power struggle.

Substance is actually more important than form. The crucial issue is if the EU can agree on common action. The Washington Post is right that the EU does indeed have a responsibility to "come up with a united front in its dealings with Russia, a common energy policy, and a more forthright commitment to Afghanistan". They could add to 'on sanctions against Iran'. On the other hand, it is in the US' interests to adapt to the highly imperfect 'compromis à la européene', and Obama shouldn't give up on us too quickly...

Liberals remain the 'kingmakers' in European Parliament coalitions

A new report that was recently published by the website www.votewatch.eu has shown that the Liberals & Democrats ALDE group remain the make-or-break of coalitions in the European Parliament. We may not be in government at Westminster, but we are highly influential in Brussels and Strasbourg where no party has an outright majority. We are regularly the 'kingmakers' when it comes to winning votes on legislation with the 84 ALDE MEPs on the winning side of more than 90% of votes. This very much reinforces my feeling that when it comes to the issues I really care about - justice, civil liberties and human rights in cross-border security and counter-terrorism - Brussels is the place to be.

In addition, the report also underlines what we have been saying for months: Cameron's decision to leave the centre-right EPP and found his own far-right group has cost him a lot in terms of influence in the Parliament. The British Conservatives, along with UKIP, are most often on the losing side of votes, a sign that they are not exactly getting their way!

Brussels study tour opportunity for teachers and lecturers

European Atlantic, a foundation that promotes the understanding of world affairs and international organisations in education, is offering British teachers and lecturers the opportunity to go on a tour of Brussels international organisations from 6 to 9 April 2010. You will have the opportunity to visit the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council, NATO, the European Trade Union Institute, the BBC's Brussels office, Spain's Perm Rep and SHAPE, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. For more information contact Antony Frost at a_j_frost@yahoo.com or 0118-926-2858 or visit www.youtalk.org.uk.

Best regards,

Sarah Ludford