I’ve only twice been in gaol. Briefly and by my own choice.
First in Dublin, in Kilmainham, where, better men than I am have been
incarcerated or shot by a tyrannous Empire. It had been restored, as a Museum,
by voluntary, unpaid labour in honour of those men and an inspiration for
Citizens who had been raised from the status of Subjects by their sacrifices.
The second time was in London’s modern highest security prison, Belmarsh for
very dangerous criminals. A friend of mine, involved in campaigning for the
righting of miscarriages of justice persuaded me to accompany him on a visit
to Frank Johnson, a native of Clonmel who had been falsely convicted for
the murder of his shopkeeper employer and friend.The death, for which Johnson
had no responsibilityarose from a brainwave of Police who recruited a couple of
Agents Provocateurs, masquerading as IRA, in a robbery, in order to discredit
the IRA amongst the Irish Community, which those police apparently believed was
unanimously pro-IRA. It might have been funny, like an Inspector Clouseau
episode. Except that the shopkeeper had been burned to death and his friend,
Frank Johnson, had been sentenced to life Imprisonment for murder.
It is rare for a person sentenced to life Imprisonment to be held for life, and
Frank Johnson, in normal circumstances, might have been freed within ten years.
But he was innocent and would not buy his freedom with a lie. Frank
Johnson had been imprisoned in the early 1970s about the same time as the
Birmingham Six, The Guildford Four, The Maguires and Judith Ward… They had
had their convictions overturned after about sixteen years. By the time I
visited him he’d been in over twenty years and resolved to remain there until
he could “PUNCH THE AIR LIKE THE BIRMINGHAM SIX” with his character
vindicated.
In due course the COURT OF APPEAL overturned the verdict arrived at on
his trial as “UNSAFE.” I was there and their Lordships struck me as
graceless, cold and grudging.
There were three of us visiting Frank Johnson. Smartly, but not flashily
dressed. Most of the visitors were very expensively dressed and shod, as
observers might have establishe from a mile away. The women wore heavy gold
bracelets from their wrists up to their oxters, heavy gold and jewelled
necklaces, rings and watches. They must have been the only perons in London,
other than the Monarch who would dare to appear in public laden with so much
BLING.
Among the current denizens of Belmarsh – men convicted of serious violent
crimes – is an innocent man, never
charged nor convicted before any Court or Tribunal with any crime. An allegation
of rape was concocted against him by police in Sweden. He was willing to face
that charge in Sweden, provided he was not bundled off to the United States. He
was willing to answer any charges from London by video link, which is
a normal procedure between Sweden and the UK. He has never carried firearms or
other weapons, nor got others to do so for him. His name is Julian Assage
He is an Australian journalist, who founded WIKILEAKS and published damning
evidence against the United States, British and other Governments, which should
be brought to international courts where the accused might have the chance to
clear their names.
A senior United Nations officer, originally sceptical about Assage’s case has
established that his incarceration is a criminal conspiracy and fears for
Assage’s life if he remains in Belmarsh or is handed over to the tender mercies
of the Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free. His own country, Australia
is complicit with US/UK in the suppression of truth.
Today, Saturday, 22 February there is a march from Australia House to
Parliament Square, London, to protest the imprisonment without trial of Assange
in London, and the plot to extradite him to the USA.
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