Moazzam Begg: A Meaningless Charge

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Moazzam Begg: A Meaningless Charge

“I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr in his letter from a Birmingham jail, 1963

CAGE is dismayed, but not surprised, to learn that the police have now charged Moazzam Begg with training terrorists and fundraising.

We believe this is yet another consequence of the ever-expanding reach of the all-encompassing terrorism legislation which is designed to restrict everyone's freedoms and liberties regardless of their faith or political hue.

It is no coincidence that Moazzam Begg, described by journalist Glenn Greenwald “as one of the West’s most prominent Muslim war on terror critics"[1] has been refused bail for now. Despite his desire to be open and transparent in his opposition to state oppression here and abroad and his frank criticism of the genocidal policies of the Assad regime, it is clear there are those on high who fear his words and believe if he is out of sight he will no longer be heard.

Cerie Bullivant, Media Officer at CAGE said:

“This arrest is a cynical attempt by the UK authorities to use one of the leading Muslim voices in the UK as a test case to widen the goalposts of what is considered terrorism. The message is clear: despite UK government support for the Syrian opposition, a double standard exists where Muslims are not permitted to act on their concerns.”

“CAGE, as part of its work, has always called for due process and open justice for all and we will continue this call while being mindful of the constraints due to a forthcoming trial. However it is vital in the interests of everyone that an early date is set so that Moazzam Begg can present his version of events to the world so everyone can judge his innocence or guilt.”

Asim Qureshi, Research Director of CAGE said:

“We reiterate our concern that this is a politically motivated arrest and very much bears the hallmarks of trying to criminalise legitimate Muslim activity by reinforcing a climate of fear.”

“We are disgusted that Moazzam Begg is being retraumatised with the same guilt by association accusations that resulted in his unlawful incarceration in Guantanamo Bay. We fully support our colleague and see these charges as politically motivated and as part of a campaign to criminalise legitimate activism.”

[ENDS]

NOTES:

1. CAGE (formerly known as CagePrisoners) is an independent advocacy organisation that works to empower communities affected by the War on Terror and to highlight abuses of prisoners’ rights.

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An update, good news

CAGE VINDICATED BY DROPPED CHARGES AGAINST OUTREACH DIRECTOR MOAZZAM BEGG

CAGE [1] is delighted to announce that all seven charges against our Outreach Director Moazzam Begg have now been dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service due to lack of evidence.

CAGE has insisted from the outset that this was a politically motivated trial targeting CAGE [2] and Moazzam for his work on exposing complicity between the Asad regime and illegal torture and rendition in Syria.

This is the second time that a major Western country has held Moazzam Begg without trial and so serious questions must be asked about why this has been allowed to happen for a second time. CAGE calls for those responsible for his needless incarceration to be held to account.

Amandla Thomas-Johnson, spokesperson for CAGE, [3] said:

"Moazzam Begg and his family have suffered over the past 7 months not only because of his incarceration but also because of the financial sanctions imposed upon him, as a result of which his bank accounts (including joint accounts) were frozen or shut down. His wife was unable to pay her utility bills that were held in their joint names without receiving a license from the Treasury, and it became a criminal offence to even try and support his family with money and food during this period. Our thoughts are with his family and we share in the joy of receiving him home again."

“We call on the CPS to review all ongoing Syria-related terrorism trials to review the evidence and drop charges. We believe many of these trials and the campaigns against Muslim charities and individuals working in Syria are politically motivated fishing expeditions using the wide scope of terror laws and Prevent policy to criminalise Muslims.”

“We also ask that the British state reviews its policies of harassment intimidation and politically motivated prosecutions of Muslims involved in the Syria crisis.”

Mirza Begg, brother of Moazzam Begg, spoke to CAGE and said:

"We are just so happy to have Moazzam home with us in time for Eid."

"It is confusing why the British government would incarcerate him for such a long period if it didn't have sufficient evidence. But right now, we are just relieved that this 7 month ordeal can come to an end and Moazzam can be back with his family."

Gareth Pierce, Moazzam Begg’s lawyer, said in a statement released to CAGE:

“Moazzam Begg is a good and brave man. He is a rare individual who will talk to everyone and listen to everyone, even those with whom he profoundly disagrees. He has spent the near decade since he was released from the torture of Bagram and Guantanamo in attempting to wake the world up to injustice and to comprehend its causes and effects. His intelligent voice, of reason and tolerance, is desperately needed now. We are relieved he is free again to contribute to our understanding of each other.”

“There is nothing new that can have been discovered now that was not always crystal clear – that this is an innocent man.”

http://www.cageuk.org/article/cage-v...r-moazzam-begg

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Another update.

Moazzam Begg complains of ‘malicious’ and ‘vindictive’ detention

Former Guantánamo inmate says it is inevitable he will bring proceedings against MI5 after terror case collapses

During the three years after 9/11 that he wore his chains and orange jumpsuit, the most wretched moment for Moazzam Begg came after his first interrogation at Bagram in Afghanistan. Hooded, his arms and legs chained behind him so that his spine arched backwards, he received a visit from the men who had just told him he would never see his children again.

They kicked him in the head.

Thirteen years on, after his latest period of incarceration, this time in a British prison, Begg sees things slightly differently. He says it was not difficult to comprehend why he was violently treated. “I understood where the Americans were coming from, at Bagram and Guantánamo,” he says. “I understood that they were reacting to 9/11.”

What is not so easy to fathom, he says in an interview with the Guardian, is why he has spent the last seven months in a cell in Belmarsh high-security prison in south London, facing first two terrorism charges, and then five more, arising from two trips to Syria – only to see the case evaporate when prosecutors announced on Wednesday that they were offering no evidence against him.

The CPS declined to explain its decision, other than to say it had “recently become aware of relevant material” that led it to realise that the chances of a jury finding Begg guilty were highly remote.

It has since emerged that MI5 had neglected to hand over to police and prosecutors its minutes of meetings it had requested with Begg. He had explained that he was planning to visit the war-ravaged country – in part to investigate the agency’s links with the Assad regime – and was assured that he would not be hindered.

It has also emerged in court that not long after this meeting with MI5, Begg’s car was bugged. The listening device remained in place for more than a year.

Begg says it is inevitable that he will be bringing civil proceedings against MI5 and the government.

At his family home in Hall Green, a southern suburb of Birmingham, Begg uses words like malicious, and vindictive, when asked to explain what he believes may have been behind his arrest last February.

He also says he feels cheated by the prosecutors’ decision to abandon the case against him. “I wanted my day in court; I was spoiling for the fight. I wanted to challenge every allegation in the case against me. I believe that if I had put my case before a jury I would have been acquitted.”

Begg’s case is that far from being a terrorist, his first trip to the country was undertaken in order to investigate MI5’s alleged role in the rendition of a Libyan man, from Syria to one of Muammar Gaddafi’s prisons. The second, he says, was to help to run a training camp in the countryside near Idlib, north-west Syria, where opponents of the regime could undergo physical exercise and acquire the rudiments of first aid and military training, with fake wooden guns. This, Begg insists, was not an act of terrorism, but an attempt to help people defend themselves against a murderous regime, war criminals who were gassing their own people. “I was never afraid to go to court. Any right-minded person on a jury would have seen very early on that I am not the terrorist here,” he says.

Begg, 46, is by far the best known of the Britons who were picked up in Afghanistan and Pakistan after 9/11, and consigned to Guantánamo by government ministers who were apprehensive of way in which an enraged US administration would react if the men were allowed to return to the UK, where it was far from clear that they could be prosecuted.

Since Begg’s release in January 2005 he has been the leading light of Cage, a London-based pressure group that campaigns for terrorism suspects denied legal rights, and which has recently been orchestrating calls for the release of Alan Henning, the Manchester taxi driver held by Islamic State (Isis) militants.

Begg is a small man, his face is scarred from the beatings he received at Bagram, and he has received treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. But he insists he will remain uncowed, and will continue to speak out for others.

Begg says he is bewildered that so many British Muslims have faced arrest and imprisonment after returning from Syria just as Isis was gaining ground in the region. Some, he says, spent no more than a couple of weeks in Syria, during which many were deeply disturbed by what they saw of the brutality of Isis. “People returned specifically because they did not want to be part of that … they wanted to come back.

“In Denmark and Germany they are not arresting returnees from Syria. We need to find another way. Not to take young men, some as young as 19, and put them away for 15 years because they made a misjudgment about the way the British government would view them.”

At the end of last year, when he had been back from Syria for almost a year, Begg realised that he too was about to face problems, when his passport was confiscated on his return from a trip to South Africa. A few weeks later he was arrested and charged with terrorism offences, as a result of his work at the training camp, and an attempt to send a Honda generator to a friend who was fighting in Syria.

Begg was refused bail, and for the next seven months was held on remand on a spur at House Block 4 at Belmarsh. There were 74 other men on the same spur, some of them convicted murderers, yet he was one of only two who were being held as Category A prisoners – the highest security category. As a result of this, he says, it was three months before his wife and four children were granted permission to see him. “It was very difficult. I had once again, as I had to do in Guantánamo, to say to myself that I am not a father, I am not a son, I am just a number.”

His cell at Belmarsh was larger than the one in which he was detained at Guantánamo. And although he was locked in his cell for up to 22 hours a day, conditions were far easier: so much so that he was initially bewildered when another inmate on the spur attempted to take his own life. “It was hard to understand, because I kept on making the comparison with Guantánamo, which was much worse. I had to remind myself that I was in England, and that I had to compare England with England, and not with Guantánamo.”

Begg was released from Belmarsh a few hours after crown prosecutors told an Old Bailey judge on Wednesday that they were not proceeding with the case against him.

Before long, it became clear that West Midlands police officers were furious that MI5 had withheld the minutes of its meetings with Begg for so long. There were suggestions that police had always been reluctant to arrest a man who had spent three years in Guantánamo without charge, but that MI5 had been insistent. The CPS, meanwhile, issued a terse statement that said: “If we had been made aware of all of this information at the time of charging, we would not have charged.”

Despite not being sure why it was that he was arrested and charged, Begg says he suspects the explanation probably embraces incompetence, Islamophobia, maliciousness and fear. “I think we will know the answer one day and it will be very embarrassing.” He says it cannot be because he wishes to see young Muslims become radicalised – “to be a fifth column in this country” – because he does not. “I am saying that we have a stake in this country and don’t let our voice be silenced.”

One possibility, he says, is that there are some within the British state who simply wish to silence dissent “from those parts of the population [where] they would expect weakness and fear and apprehension”: British Muslims.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/03/moazzam-begg-malicious-vindictive-detainment