18 August 2008 

Lobby your MP and MEP
about Abuse of British Citizen's Human Rights in France

If you agree with the comments below, 
please copy and send them to your Member of Parliament   (MP)
and your Member of the European Parliament   (MEP)
and ask them to ask Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, to do something about this fundamental and systematic abuse of the human rights of ordinary, decent - innocent - British Citizens in France...

Prolonged detention without trial undermines fair trial rights, including the right to be free from arbitrary detention and the presumption of innocence. Everybody arrested is entitled to be tried within a reasonable time, in proceedings that fully comply with fair trial standards, or to be released. As the lawyers at the UK-based charity, Fair Trials International, will confirm, BRITISH CITIZENS are held WITHOUT TRIAL in FRANCE for MONTHS or even YEARS, with inadequate legal representation and translation services both before and when they do eventually come to trial.

The current case in the news, of British woman, Julia Nichols, is an example of the travesty of justice which can occur under the French legal system which presumes you are guilty before you are proven innocent and therefore keeps you incarcerated in terrible conditions until that time. Julia was held without trial for months and eventually released, but not before suffering gang rape, starvation, and beatings - and being driven to attempt suicide - in a horrendous French prison.

A related major concern of the lawyers at Fair Trials International is the "European Arrest Warrant". If the French police simply suspect a British Citizen of a crime, they can issue this European Arrest Warrant and the British Police have no option but to send that citizen over to France where, like Julia Nichols, they will be held in terrible French prison conditions for months or even years until their trial eventually comes to court. At a time when President Sarkozy of France is asking other countries to respect human rights, this fundamental abuse of human rights in his own country is something the British Government should be asking him to address.

Julia's full horrific story is told in a book published 18 August 2008...
Day Trip to Hell

After 18 months held in terrible conditions without trial "... a judge not only told Nichols she could go home but also confirmed she was innocent."
Saturday Observer 16.08.08