Students Released After 7 Days Incarceration Without Charge

good news that they have been released without charge - shocking that they ever should have been arrested in the first place

SHAME ON YOU UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM!

may the concerned academics and students have much sucess in organising!

One of the arrestees has been re-arrested under immigration laws. Seems like the cops just dont want to leave empty handed after all this effort.

hate to say it, I know it's a cliche, but it smacks so much of nazi germany, part of the stratergy of the Nazi's was to get people to report anything suspicious their freinds/neighbours/students/teachers etc. got up to. so easily used for ones personal objectives, as is probably likely in the case of the Errorists at Nottingham uni

Having just heard the real story behind this and the people involved I am totally appalled by this. It seems we now run the risk of being detained for large amounts of time simply for viewing radical material.

Considering who the people arrested are it seems that the university are cracking down on dissent. We should not stay quiet about this.

looking forward to a strong response from us students and professors.


despite this wind-down time of year we can NOT let this be forgotten over a lazy summer,


get involved!

Very similar to the Nazis in terms of suspicion and reporting, however there will always be people who say "it can't be like the Nazis unless there's gas chambers" and then accuse us of disrespecting victims of the Holocaust (they aren't gassing people yet... although I always wondered where all the homeless people disappeared to). A closer (and less risky) parallel may be with the treatment of dissidents in eastern Europe pre-89, where there'd be the same kind of detention, spurious charges and intensive investigations around people suspected of subversion. Another close parallel is the treatment of the radical left in Italy in the 1970s.

Good to hear that one of them is out, although after what happened to Babar Ahmed it may be too early to be celebrating. We need to make sure this doesn't go without response - if they get away with it then there'll be more. We may also need to defend the guy who's now been re-arrested "on immigration charges" - this sort of thing is quite common after "terror" arrests and we need to be careful that he doesn't vanish into the "detention centre" gulag. If it's a definite "offence" I'd guess they have to charge or release, and a recent ruling says they can only detain someone in immigration detention if they're pending deportation - we should make sure he gets proper legal support as they could easily try to exceed their powers; and we might need to look into anti-deportation campaigning.

Repeating suggested responses from the other post...

1) It is important that there be some kind of visible response. This will be difficult given the time of year, and may have to wait till autumn, but could consist for example of picketing the next official meeting at the university, creating an ongoing tent camp for free speech, another mass march, etc.

2) File official complaints over the treatment of students, the university actions and the police intrusion. These give the university the opportunity to back down or apologise, or distance itself from whoever made the decision to call the police. If they refuse to do so then it will at least expose what decisions were made and why.

3) Try to find out which person or agency was responsible for calling in the police. Whoever did this was infringing students’ rights and wasting police time. We should demand that this person resign or be sacked. If necessary we should organise an ongoing campaign for resignation.

4) Try to raise and pass a motion in UCU condemning the raid, condemning terror laws for potentially infringing academic freedom and pledging UCU members not to report people to the police for political opinions, research topics, or anything which doesn’t involve actually planning a terrorist attack. This could be taken to national UCU – after the Palestine motion, anything of this kind would get attention even if it wasn’t passed.

5) Try to raise the issue internationally: this kind of thing will be rather more shocking to audiences in the rest of the world, especially the Middle East, than here. We should try to get our actions covered in outlets such as al-Jazeera, IRNA, Daily Times (Pakistan) and so on, so they reach a more sympathetic audience. Attempts should also be made to get the case in Statewatch, various left and anarchist papers/magazines, etc.

6) Try to organise simultaneous protests at the Malaysia campus, by making links with civil rights and/or Muslim groups in Malaysia.

7) Try to get statements of support from national and international human rights groups. An endorsement from Amnesty would be great but they seem reluctant to declare people prisoners of conscience in Britain. Electronic Frontier Foundation, Islamic Human Rights Commission and CAMPACC would probably be supportive. Is there an international organisation for academic freedom?

RESPONSE:
in answer to the question above about an international academic freedom organization - i have only heard of Academics for Academic Freedom

see  http://www.afaf.org.uk/ for more info

8) I would imagine that people can come up with other ideas of things to do on the ground which would impose costs on the university for their actions. It would be good to see the campus covered in posters, stickers etc about this for awhile; and if it had a general bad effect on the university administration in other ways.

So the cops arrest a guy and hold him for 7 days during which time they can't suss out he is/not 'illegal' after a full 7 day investigation so they re-arrest him - shows them up to be completely dim eh? or is that vindictive - shame on the Stasi

Some brilliant ideas from 'still concerned'. We are trying to organise academics and students on this issue, and details of meetings and plans will be made public for all those concerned to get involved.

On a side note, I agree that a closer parallel is the ex-Soviet bloc, or Middle Eastern authoritarian governments, such as Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Use of informants, a fake socialist government, indefinite detention, and clamp down on political expression bears a very, very close resemblance to Soviet-Middle Eastern repression. (It would be hypocritical to fail to mention that in the Middle East, our government has always supported such governments and sold them copious amounts of arms).

If you would like to voice your concerns about these arrests you could do worse than emailing the Vice Chancellor and perhaps encouraging others to do the same. Whilst a barrage of hate mail might not serve any useful purpose, serious correspondence from a wide range of people might cause a bit of thought.

 vice-chancellor@nottingham.ac.uk

Also I have taken the effort to inform local MP Alan Simpson of some of the background and asked for his input. He and other MPs can be contacted through the following link:  http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/members/mps_contact.cfm

And what if these guys hadn't been arrested and then went onto blow something up? What if viewing the material was a precursor to going off and trying to kill as many innocent people as possible?

Being students, some naievety is to be expected, but you really need to open your eyes to the real world. You'd be screaming your guts out if they were terrorists, begging for the police to protect you. But because they're uni students who looked at something they shouldn't you think it's an outrage. Like I say, they were innocent, but what if they weren't and the police left them alone for fear of offending people....?

or would you be praising them for attacking the Imperialist state and because the decadent bourgeois deserved it?

How come these guys were arrested for dodgy literature & BNP members with dodgy literature aren't arrested & those found with masses of bombs are given slapped wrists. They have been connected to & committed numerous terrorist acts here,from the London nail bomber,bologna bombing in Italy &numerous acts in N.ireland.
If they did have dodgy fash-racist literature though they certainly do need shunning by all of us, Hamza & Griffin share alot more than just tea& jokes at Oxford uni debates.

Read the original post again

1) the arreseted students were doing legitimate research into various subjects which could have been varified within five minutes had the Uni wanted to, the Uni probably were already aware of this fact.

2) the people arrested were politcally active with certain campaigns (legitimate) and were a thorn in the side of the uni.

3) were released without charge

I am no einstein, but can easily see what has happened here.+

that watching the mainstream news these days and seeing the greedy, oppressive and racist foreign policy of the state is far more likely to make someone a terrorist than any amount of 'radical material'.

should be going postal over this. this is an outrageous attack on academic freedom, on freedom itself, for god's sake go for the Uni's throat on this one, ditto dibble.

"So the cops arrest a guy and hold him for 7 days during which time they can't suss out he is/not 'illegal' after a full 7 day investigation so they re-arrest him - shows them up to be completely dim eh? or is that vindictive - shame on the Stasi

suspect "

The only thing that is 'suspect' here is the lack of understanding of law. If the guy has been dealt with for immigration matters this clearly isn't something that the anti-terror laws deal with...he would have to be dealt with like any other criminal suspect under the terms of normal police powers...within 24hrs etc...

oh yes...and just because something is freely available on the web, doesn't make it legal - look at the "research" that Chris Langham took part in (again freely available on the web)..  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/6991550.stm

Chewbacca, I'm reporting you to the terror police for having a suspicious username derived from a hairy fictional armed oppositionist who murdered police (Stormtroopers), was involved in the terror attack on the Death Star and also for watching videos containing suicide bombings (the Super Star Destroyer crash scene in Return of the Jedi). Oh and you've got hair all over so you must be an extremist. See you in 28 days.

Well not really. But if you were Muslim then the standard of evidence for being a "terrorist suspect" really is this low, as police etc aren't familiar with the religion or culture and have actually put people on trial for saying Koran verses in prayers, or engaging in certain genres of Arabic writing.
 http://www.campacc.org.uk/irish_peirce_070408.html

If police just happen to catch a real "terrorist" (I prefer the term armed opposition movement) in one of these silly raids then it's just good luck, same as if you shoot random passers-by and just happen to shoot a terrorist. I don't think this is a good argument for shooting random passers-by, or for police dragnets and pretext raids either. If police are going to arrest people at all, why not wait till they have evidence they're actually going to do something, or after they've done it? This is how it works with serial killers, spree killers, rapists, all kinds of "crimes" which do a lot of harm - why is it somehow different with "terrorists"? (Actually I don't see what possible case there can be for "terrorist" laws if it's already illegal to murder, make bombs, etc)

Actually I don't go around crying for blood when there's a real attack by armed oppositionists, it's a risk I can live with, unlike the risk posed by the police state. Look at the statistics, you're more likely to be killed by your partner than by a terrorist. Thousands die every year from road deaths, deaths in the workplace, defective drugs released to patients because animal tests are unreliable, etc.

Maybe the police should lock up all the people they think MIGHT consider speeding? Or shoot on sight anyone seen going over the speed limit? After all, WHAT IF THEY HADN'T done this and the person had gone on to KILL someone?

What about the 100 or so people killed by POLICE every year (not counting car accidents)? We should be pleased whenever a cop gets shot - because WHAT IF they survived AND WENT ON TO KILL SOMEONE?

I don't see how either of these arguments are any different from the argument about "terrorism". You're just as dead whichever happens to you.

Of course there is also the reverse possibility - what if someone starts out as innocent and harmless and then gets WRONGLY ARRESTED and PERSECUTED by the police, and is so MADDENED and TRAUMATISED by this that they go out and kill people? This has happened with about 36 of the Guantanamo inmates, and nearly all Jordan's Islamic armed opposition are recruited in prisons.

And yes, we wouldn't be at risk at all except for the state's foreign policy. Bin Laden has said that he isn't after Sweden. They don't attack for no reason, they're just retaliating for mass killings by the west. Now, I wish he and his ilk would also learn to tell the difference between states and peoples ("our" politicians need to learn this too though). The clearer it is that we're against the war and the "terror" crackdowns, the sooner we can make our peace with the world.

In any case this isn't relevant here because we're dealing with a patently wrongful arrest, probably motivated by a desire to get back at someone for peaceful political activity... if this isn't grounds for fighting back against the police-state then I don't know what is.

It was more than just freely available on the web mate, it was the U.S. governments edited version of an al-qaida manual taken from the U.S. governments own website.