Cardiff: Extradition - Film Screening
Adam Johannes | 22.06.2012 19:04 | Anti-racism | Migration | Terror War
CARDIFF FILM SCREENING
Monday 2 July at 7 pm
Shandon Lecture Theatre, Main Building,
Cardiff University, Park Place (opp. Student Union)
Wales premiere of "Extradition", a powerful new documentary film. The event will include a Q & A with Hamja Ahsan (Talhas Brother) reading Talha's new collection of prison poetry.
Extradition is a film that explores the injustices of the Extradition Act 2003 through the suffering of two individuals and their families. The act stipulates that any British Citizen can be extradited to the US without their government even providing prima facie evidence. Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan have been detained for eight and six years respectively, both without trial. In all this time they have had no charges levelled against them, seen none of the evidence or even been questioned by British or American police. Yet they remain imprisoned.
The documentary showcases the hypocrisy and one-sidedness of the Act but also shows the human suffering of the two men and their families.
The film features interviews with human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, Talha's Brother Hamja Ahsan, playwright Avaes Mohammad, the fathers of Babar and Talha, framed by Talha's prison poetry.
The fate of these men is now in an appeal at the European Court of Human Rights, who will make the decision on the validity of their extradition by July 10, 2012.
Noam Chomsky: "With the sharp deterioration of protection of elementary civil rights in the US, no one should be extradited to the country on charges related to alleged terrorism. The constitutional lawyer in the White House, after all, hasjust made it clear that the due process provisions of the US Constitution (and Magna Carta) can be satisfied by an internal discussion in the executive branch. And that is hardly the only example. Furthermore, the prisons and the incarceration system in general are an international scandal. The shallow and evasive charges in this case strongly reinforce that conclusion. I wish you the best success in your campaign to block extradition for Talha Ahsan."
Solitary Confinement is no place for a poet: Novelist AL Kennedy writing in the Guardian -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/09/solitary-confinement-talha-ahsan-poet
Adam Johannes
e-mail:
thomas_muntzer_cardiff@hotmail.co.uk