🚀 go-pugleaf

Barry:  at 6'4" (1m95) -- always the athlete-scholar -- 
       he has seen his weight plummet to 139 lbs (63 kilos) 
       due to deplorable conditions and lack of nutrition.  




Hi, 

We're looking for persons of conscience who are willing to
reach out to a Human Rights victim and prisoner of 
conscience in France.

Please take a moment and send Barry a message of goodwill.  
Please take the time.  Help save a life.....

We have set up an E-mail forwarding address (i.e., 
your message sent to this E-mail address will be
printed out and mailed directly to Barry in France):

           BarrySupport@starmail.com

If you include your regular postal address 
(since Barry does not have E-mail in prison), Barry 
may be able to send back a reply by regular mail.

You can read Barry's "letters from prison" posted at:

     http://www.egroups.com/list/barry

These letters give an extraordinary inside view of the prison
world...and of HOPE, where others may only see despair.


Thank you !!


Amnesty & Justice
Letters with Wings


ps:

Or, write/post a message for him directly at the Justice Website:

              http://www.poboxes.com/JUSTICE


______________________________________


RE:  Update on BARRY, Human Rights victim
                Prisoner of Conscience

   PARIS:  Kafka's Paradise, Black Man's Hell


A virtual death sentence for an Am. tourist in France

  *  18 years, no right to appeal 
  *  The "forgotten" American tourist

Before being sentenced, he was held 20 months without
trial, bail or opportunity to defend himself.
_______________________________________


Please help with a Human Rights action
(helping an African-American tourist turned 
Human Rights victim in France, sentenced to 18 yrs
without right to appeal..beyond the reach of the U.S.
State Department).

Please write to **both**

     Justice@comports.com,
     Justice1-info@autoresponder.freeyellow.com  (an Update)


Wrongfully arrested shortly after arriving in 
France for "association avec malfaiteurs" - 
i.e., guilt by association.  The person in France who
was to help Barry with lodging, it turned out,
was under surveillance for suspicion of trafficking.  

Barry was arrested, although he had nothing illegal
whatsoever in his possession, had not been under
investigation, and has no criminal record, anywhere.

No evidence of guilt was ever presented in French court,
beyond "association" -- "knowing" a suspect.


Issues:

*  Non-respect of Vienna Convention consular agreements
*  Association avec malfaiteurs - guilt by association
*  Inquisitorial versus adversarial justice systems
*  Underlying racism & xenophobia
*  Excess of the State

This is a disturbing case, one that speaks to
the worsening climate for Human Rights in France.

Barry's legal conundrums are a microcosm of 
what many ethnic minorities face in France, today -- and
paints a dysmal picture of a global society that is
increasingly turning a blind eye to inhumanity.

_____________________________


Send Barry a Message of Goodwill

Please take the time to send a message of encouragement
to Barry.  Messages of any length -- short or long --
will be printed out and mailed to him at his prison address
in France.  Please send a goodwill message in support of his 
basic Human Rights.  The more contact a prisoner has with the 
outside, the better he is likely to be treated.  Help 
bolster Barry's morale.  

Suicides run rampant in French prisons.  They say of the
prison where Barry is:  

     "You check in, but you might not check out."

Barry is being held in semi-isolation and is powerless to 
help himself.

Send your message to Barry by E-mail to:

                 BarrySupport@starmail.com


Or, write/post a message for him at the Justice Website:

                 http://www.poboxes.com/JUSTICE


___________________________


Small Donations

Barry is indigent, as is his family.  His reserve fund 
from contributions is down to 800 francs (approx $140).  

Anyone who is able and willing to help, thank you in
advance.

To obtain the address where a contribution may be sent, please
E-mail to:

               FreeBarry1@aol.com


Any donation, however small, would help.

Barry hopes to begin a part-time job in a shoe factory
in September.  Funds are needed to help stave him over
until then.

........................


ARCHIVE - Updates - Letters from Prison


Read updates on Barry's Cry for FREEDOM, archived at:

     http://www.egroups.com/list/barry/


Websites:

     http://x14.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=417345441
     http://members.aol.com/FreeBarry1/index.html
     http://home4.inet.tele.dk/lepan/lene/index.htm
     http://www.poboxes.com/justice    <= post msg to Barry, here


New Justice List for Barry

Join the list to stay updated on Barry's situation, and to 
share in discussion on what we in the international community 
may be able to do to help him.  Send a blank E-mail
to:  Justice@comports.com and reply to the Confirm request
when it arrives.

This is right out of a chapter of Kafka.

Barry will start his 6th year behind French bars
in May.  


State Department & US Gov't say "hands are tied"

Not surprisingly, the American Embassy and the State
Department, have been of little or no use, stating
in pat responses to the numerous appeals for help: 

    The US Government cannot interfere in the 
    judicial system of a sovereign power.  

    Americans who travel abroad do so at their 
    own risk


Please help make Barry's plight known as widely as possible.

Still a young man, he will be nearly 50 years old if he survives
to be released in the year 2012.

Barry is being held at the notorious Clairvaux prison, tantamount 
in France to ALCATRAZ.  

Help save a life....


Thank you




______________________________________________________

LINKING BARRY'S JUSTICE SITES TO YOUR HOME PAGE

If you have a Web Page, please link to it one or
more of Barry's Justice sites: 

http://members.aol.com/FreeBarry1/index.html
http://home4.inet.tele.dk/lepan/lene/index.htm
http://www.poboxes.com/justice     <= post msg to Barry, here
http://www.eGroups.com/list/barry 
http://x14.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=417345441

Please let us know if you are willing to make a link on your
Web Page.

______________________________________________________



Lavanya Radhakrishnan, Coordinator-Amnesty Int'l-USA 
      in Urbana Champaign, Illinois


I hope that Barry will get a chance to defend himself.  I
spent a year in France about 3 years ago, and my boyfriend,
a Parisian of Senegalese descent, was also wrongly convicted
of drug trafficking.  He was innocent, that I was sure of,
but the police brutalized him, and threw him in jail with no
sight of a trial.  He also experienced bad conditions in his
prison environment, and he was denied visitation from
anyone, even his own mother, for 5 months.

However, for reasons unknown to his friends and family, he
was released after 365 days of confinement - no trail, no
explanation from the judicial system. Maybe there is a
chance that Barry will be released earlier than 18 years,
but we must all fight for him now.


Sincerely,

Lavanya Radhakrishnan
Amnesty International-USA

_________________________________