Weekly Action and News 16/06/2022
Manchester Amnesty Weekly Action and News
Please do this action and make a difference
Ali Kololo has been locked away in a Kenyan prison since 2011, after being beaten and threatened into “confessing” to involvement in the 2011 kidnapping of British woman Judith Tebbutt and the murder of her husband David. His death sentence, passed in 2013, was commuted when the mandatory death penalty was abolished in 2017, but he still faces a lifetime in prison. Ali didn’t have a lawyer or interpreter when he was tried, despite not speaking any English and little Swahili – the languages used in court. It has been suggested that crucial evidence was left out at his trial. Judith Tebbutt has said that Ali wasn’t there the night she was kidnapped, and he wasn’t there when she was being held hostage. She has been actively campaigning for Ali’s conviction to be overturned. His final appeal will be heard in court on 26th September. Can you add your name to this petition by Reprieve, and call for Ali to be freed?
#amnestymanc Human Rights Walk
8th October, 1.15 for 1.30pm.
Please advertise far and wide!
Led by our member Steve Roman, the walk is fully accessible and will last about 2 hours.
Don’t forget to buy yourself a ticket too, here where you can also read more about the walk.
http://wegottickets.com/event/557534
We will send a pdf copy of the flyer to all on our mailing list, so look out for it.
Appeal Writing Drop-In
Saturday 24th September 2-4pm
Central Library
Our regular appeal writing get-together will take place near the café in Central Library a week tomorrow. Case details will be provided with pens and paper for letters.
Bring along a device for emails/tweets.
In addition to current urgent action cases, we will be making key postcards to send to the UAE embassy calling for the release of prisoner of conscience, Mohammed al-Roken.
Come along when you can and get stuck in!
***TOMORROW***
Demonstration in St Peter’s Square at 2pm tomorrow
in support of justice for Chris Kaba, the young man shot dead by police in London last week.
Some of our members will attend. If you wish to join them, please meet at
the Emmeline Pankhurst statue at 1.55 pm
Asylum seekers and mental health
The Syrian refugee support group Rethink Rebuild Society are organising a book launch and panel discussion on 'seeking asylum and mental health’. The event, on Thursday 6 October at 6.30pm at Discovery House in Levenshulme, is for anyone with an interest in the wellbeing and welfare of asylum seekers and refugees. The event is free but donations would be welcome. The link to register and share is: https://seeking-asylum-mental-health.eventbrite.co.uk or see the
Facebook event page.
Save Julian Assange: Join the Wikileaks Revolution
In conjunction with Body Warmth: Dance to Stay Warm, there will be a display of original artwork, banners and photographs together with live acoustic sets, poetry readings and contemporary dance from 15:00-19:00 at the Old Abbey Taphouse in Hulme on Saturday 15th October. This event is FREE. If you stay for the post-19:00 evening event by Body Warmth, the organisers are requesting a donation of £5 to go towards the venue’s heating costs. Please see this link for more information about the Julian Assange campaign, and please contact Lima Al-iskalachi limazakoor@gmail.com if you are able to help her to provide an Amnesty presence at the afternoon event.
We are hoping to have a presence at the Manchester Literary Festival on 16th October. Watch this space for more news!
We will shortly be sending round some information about Mike Reed’s presentation on the Israeli Apartheid against Palestinians campaign. Please look out for it and share it with any of your organisations that might be interested in hearing the talk.
Good news
Egypt - On 9 September 2022 Ahmed Maher Ezzat, known as Rigo, was released after more than two years of preventive detention. He was arrested in May 2020 on charges of joining a terrorist group and spreading false news. A further 32 prisoners whose pre-trial detention had exceeded the statutory two-year period were also released at the same time.
USA - On September 8, 2022, a South Carolina state court upheld the appeals of four people sentenced to death. South Carolina uses lethal injection to kill people but, being unable to obtain the relevant drugs, had reinstated previous methods of execution, namely shooting and the electric chair. The Court held that this reinstatement was unconstitutional.
Germany - On 5 September 2022, a court in Berlin ruled in favour of Faraq Maraqa, a Jordanian-Palestinian journalist from the Deutsche Welle public broadcaster, who had been dismissed after the publication of an article on Israel. The court found that the dismissal was based on unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism.
Manchester Amnesty Subgroups and other work
If you would like to join any of our subgroups, please contact the current convenors for joining details.
UAE – Kathryn Fletcher, bussk@btinternet.com
Anti-racism – Hazel Errey, hazelerrey@gmail.com,
Refugees – Alison Wearden, alison.wearden@gmail.com
HR in UK – Matthew Sherwood, m.j.sherwood@outlook.com
Craftivism - Kathryn Fletcher bussk@btinternet.com
Other areas of work are led by:
Crisis and Tactical Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen Rebecca Shaw, r.h.shaw.7@gmail.com
Europe/ Turkey, Fatih Segmen, fsegmen@yahoo.com
Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians Mike Reed mikewreed101@gmail.com
Individuals at Risk (quarterly letter writing) Anne Walker anne.walker9@ntlworld.com
Alison Wearden
Communications Secretary
Manchester Group of Amnesty International
Please contact me with items for our Weekly Action and News email, or with ideas for longer articles for the quarterly Manchester Amnesty Group Bulletin.
0 comments