Up to 250 students attending Amnesty International’s annual student conference in London will take part in a day of action on Saturday 7 November to protest the ongoing detention of Albert Woodfox who has been held in solitary confinement in the USA for a staggering 43 years.

The students will spend the day travelling around London in groups with a cardboard cut-out of Albert, taking photos of him at well-known landmarks. The photos will be gathered and sent to Mr Woodfox in prison to show him some of the things that have changed in the time he has been in an isolation cell.   

The students will then gather outside the US Embassy in London at 4pm with placards calling for Albert’s immediate release.

Kate Allen, Amnesty UK’s director said:

“Albert has been denied justice and detained for more than half of his life, alone and in a tiny cell, after a conviction based on dubious evidence and testimonies.

“The injustice of this case is all too evident and it must end now. That’s why we’re mobilising to call for Albert’s immediate release.”

Albert Woodfox is 68 years-old and was imprisoned in 1972 after a deeply flawed trial for the murder of a prison guard. He has been held in solitary confinement since that time in a cell just two metres by three metres. He has always maintained his innocence and his conviction has been overturned three times, yet he remains in prison because the state authorities have appealed against every decision in his favour.

In June this year a federal court ordered Albert’s immediate release, but the state appealed again and he remains in jail pending a further ruling.

Albert Woodfox is one of 12 cases highlighted in Amnesty UK’s 2015 “Write for Rights” campaign which calls on people to write a solidarity letter or appeal on behalf of the victims of human rights abuses from all over the world. For more information visit: www.amnesty.org.uk/write