Please follow the simple guide below. It will only take 10 minutes of your time and may save our son from unfair treatment and life imprisonment in solitary confinement.
1. Find out the name of your local MP by entering your postcode at www.theyworkforyou.com
2. Write a letter to your MP using the sample letter below, which can also be downloaded here.
3. Print and enclose our downloadable profile with the letter.
4. Phone your MP’s office on a weekly basis if no written response is forthcoming.
5. Forward copies of all correspondence to either our postal address (Free Talha Ahsan Campaign, PO Box 64590, London, SW17 1DG) or our email address (info@freetalha.org)
Please join us in this effort and encourage others to participate in this new campaign initiative to reverse this unjust law. Your efforts hitherto have made a difference.
SAMPLE LETTER
your address
date
Insert MP’s Name
House of Commons
London, SW1A OAA
Dear
Re: the extradition case of Talha Ahsan
I write on behalf of the desperate family of Talha Ahsan – a 32 year old British citizen with Asperger syndrome. He has been in high security prisons since July 2006 without trial. He is detained under the controversial Extradition Act 2003 upon a request from the USA – a country he has never visited. He is accused of terrorism-related offences arising from alleged involvement with a series of websites since 1997, one of which happened to be located on a server in America. He denies the charges. Please review the enclosed fact sheet for more details.
I bring your attention to the Court of Appeal case of R. v. Sheppard and Whittle (January 2010) as the legal precedent for the UK being the ‘natural forum’ for Talha’s prosecution. The appellants were charged with possession, publication and distribution (via the internet) of racially inflammatory material via the internet. They were extradited from America to the UK. They argued that the US was more appropriate than the UK for prosecution as the websites were hosted in California. Instead Lord Justice Scott Baker ruled the UK was the appropriate forum for prosecution as the substantial measure of activities constituting the crime, such as the writing and maintenance of the websites, took place in the UK.
The Government accepts the possibility for his case to be resolved by a domestic prosecution as the ECtHR highlights in the conclusion to their admissibility judgement (July 2010). This is the correct action since all the allegations against Talha materially took place in the UK since he was 18 years old. There is still time to do this. Talha’s family believe that terrorism can be tackled without compromising the sovereignty of British citizenship or betraying a sense of justice. Regardless of innocence or guilt, he should be tried in the country of his birth.
Talha has received a wide coalition of support. They include his local MP and shadow justice secretary, Sadiq Khan; novelist, A L Kennedy; former Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg, and the civil rights organisation, Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC). In November 2011, his co-defendant, Babar Ahmad, initiated a parliamentary debate with over 149,000 signatures in an e-petition for a UK trial, demonstrating the will of the British public for these cases.
Whilst in prison Talha has assisted English classes for foreign nationals, completed courses in computing and mentoring, and has won prizes for his creative writing. Seventy years solitary confinement in a US Supermax prison will deny him all opportunity to be the productive and supportive person that he is. I earnestly ask that you write to the Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecutions and the Home Secretary, requesting Talha and his co-defendant be put on trial in the UK.
Yours sincerely,
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