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France: Virtual "Death Sentence" for Am. Tourist


African American Human Rights Victim / Prisoner of Conscience




Version Francaise:

     http://www.artinternet.fr/gryga/barry.htm
     http://x13.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=338585794

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


U P D A T E




 Any help with making the plight of this Human Rights victim
       known, would be welcome 

 18 years without the possibility of appeal - a virtual 
       "death sentence"
           �
 Still a young man, Barry would be nearly 50 years old
       if he survived to be released in the year 2012

 Depression and suicide run rampant in deplorable prison conditions;
       French authorities pay little attention

       Several of Barry's friends and fellow cell mates have 
              succumbed to depression and suicide


*********************************************************




France:  American Tourist in Pursuit of Justice


GUILT BY ASSOCIATION: "ASSOCIATION AVEC MALFAITEURS"


Human Rights Action

Issues:

*  18-yr sentence without the possibility of appeal
*  Vienna Convention: Non-Respect of Consular Accords
*  Inquisitorial versus Adversarial Justice Systems
*  Guilt by Association & Absence of Presumption of
      Innocence
*  Excess of the state
*  Underlying racism & xenophobia



� � B a r r y�  B R A I M A H
�
�
New prison address:
�
� � 8674 B-Sud 227
� � Centre Pen. de Clairvaux
� � 10310 Ville sous La Ferte
� � � � � FRANCE


Beyond the reach of the US Government
�
� � The numerous appeals to the American Embassy and US State
� � Dept. have essentially fallen on deaf ears.� In pat responses to 
    pleas for help from Barry and his family, the US
� � Government states:
�
�
� � � The United States cannot interfere with the
� � � judicial system of a foreign power.
�
� � � Americans who choose to travel abroad, do so at
� � � their own risk.

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________


SENDING BARRY A MESSAGE OF ENCOURAGEMENT

In July, Barry will pass his 6th consecutive
birthday behind French bars, in isolation.
It is hoped that over the next couple or so
months, concerned persons will send Barry 
notes, postcards, messages and letters.

He is being held in a cramped 6X12-ft
cell in one of France's most notorious prisons,
Clairvaux, which is tantamount to the old
Alcatraz.  It is used for housing "dangerous"
and infamous long-termers.

French authorities have allowed only 4 persons 
to visit Barry in prison since his arrest
in 1994.


IF WILLING TO WRITE...

Barry does not have access to E-mail, so please
write him directly at his address above.  Or, E-mail
your message to us, and we will print it out
(however long) and send it to him in France.

Pls send Barry a msg of encouragement and
support for his Human Rights.  

Barry is powerless to help himself.  The more contact
a prisoner has with the outside world, generally the better 
he will be treated.


WE WILL AIRMAIL YOUR MESSAGE TO BARRY

Go to 

       http://www.poboxes.com/justice

to write/post a personal message for Barry, of 
any length.  

Or, E-mail your message to:

          BarrySupport@starmail.com

We will print out your message and AirMail it to him
at his prison address in France (optional: include
your street address in case he is able to reply; he
does not have access to E-mail).

Or, write to Barry directly at his prison address above.


THANK YOU !!

Justice@comports.com
Moderator@eGroups.com

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________


      LETTER TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY


By bringing Barry's case to the attention of the international
community, we hope much-needed humanitarian help will come his way.


BACKGROUND

An African American tourist arrested in 1994 on arriving in France 
for suspicion of trafficking, then held 20 months without trial, 
bail or opportunity to defend himself, and finally ("helped" 
by inadequate legal representation) sentenced to 18 years without 
right to appeal.  

The only legal recourse that remained to him was the "pourvoi 
en cassation" or petition to France's Supreme Court, 
which was rejected. 

Barry's arrest was apparently based on his "association" with
a suspect.  Nothing approaching proof of guilt was ever presented 
in court -- this confirmed by Human Rights monitors who attended 
his trial.

Barry has always proclaimed his innocence.  Subsequent independent
investigations (one by members of the Observatoire International
des Prisons, OIP) have supported Barry's claim.

Barry was convicted by a "special" French court, the Cour d'Assises 
Speciale -- set up under so-called Pasqua Laws to address terrorism 
and trafficking.  Barry's legal counsel (French) told us that in 
this court, it is not uncommon for normal Human Rights protections 
to be suspended.

Even worse for Barry, the European Court recently turned down his 
petition to review his case, because his legal defense had failed
to introduce during trial the various dimensions of Human Rights 
violation.  

Barry's attorneys' specialty was commercial, not criminal, law.

Because this is not a death penalty case, and because the venue
is France (i.e., "cradle of Human Rights"), it seems that this case
and this person are not receiving the interest or attention that they
merit.

Below are some details taken from Web pages set up to give 
information on Barry's case.


More details can be found at the following sites:

http://www.egroups.com/list/barry (find correspondence to/from Barry)
http://members.aol.com/freebarry1/index.html
http://www.poboxes.com/justice (find Open Letter to Chirac)

The Paris-based Human Rights monitors who visit Barry 
in prison, also attended the trial, and have quite a lot of information,
as well as trial notes (since verbatim transcripts are not commonly 
made of French trials).  

We have been helping with locating resources that might be of use
to Barry.  He -- like his family -- is indigent.  Barry is originally
from Africa.  He became a US citizen while studying in the States.

Last year, we launched a letter-writing campaign.  Dozens of letters 
were sent to President Chirac in support of Barry's "demande de 
grace," but this effort ultimately failed to budge Chirac.  

In addition to requesting help from the American Embassy,
over a half year ago we wrote to Madeleine Albright at
the US State Department, expounding on the issue of 
non-respect (i.e., the American Embassy in Paris was
not informed of Barry's arrest, but learned of it sometime
later through a notice in the newspaper Liberation).  

We have as yet received no reply from the State Department
(though other sources have confirmed that the State Department
has received our request). 

Any suggestions or ideas would be welcome.  Also,
any contacts or referrals for us in France (or elsewhere)
would be most appreciated.

Thank you in advance for any assistance or for sharing any 
thoughts on how we might continue our efforts on behalf of
Barry.

Sincerely yours,


Family & Friends


JUSTICE@comports.com
BarrySupport@starmail.com

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


CONTRIBUTIONS NEEDED

If able and willing to help, please E-mail to 
FreeBarry1@aol.com and we will send you the address
where a donation (however small) may be sent.  


Thank you in advance.


___________________________________________


France: African American in Pursuit of Justice


GUILT BY ASSOCIATION: "ASSOCIATION AVEC MALFAITEURS"


Human Rights Action

Issues:

*  18-yr sentence without the possibility of appeal
*  Vienna Convention: Non-Respect of Consular Accords
*  Inquisitorial versus Adversarial Justice Systems
*  Guilt by Association & Absence of Presumption of
      Innocence
*  Excess of the state
*  Underlying racism & xenophobia


Concerned Friend:

We are inviting you to take part in an urgent Human 
Rights action on behalf of an African-American 
tourist in France, turned Human Right victim.

You are urged to participate by joining the 
Justice List, to stay informed on developments
in this case, and to exchange ideas on what
concerned persons in the international community 
may be able to do to help.

Send ANY msg to both: 

           Justice@comports.com,
           BarrySupport@starmail.com

with "Join Justice List" in the Subject

Reply to the Confirm Request when it arrives.



Here is background information:

***********************************************



A M N E S T Y   &   J U S T I C E
______________________________________

Letters with Wings  ///\_[_/\\\



     A Troubling Human Rights Case in France



re:  Barry  B R A I M A H

     wrongfully imprisoned since May 1994


           "The Forgotten Tourist"

Barry, born & raised in Africa, became an American
citizen while doing his studies in the USA. He traveled
as a tourist to France for the only time in May 1994.

Barry was arrested on arriving in France for 
"association avec malfaiteurs" -- that is, for
"knowing" someone whom French police had under
surveillance for drug trafficking.

The US Embassy was not notified of Barry's arrest,
but read about it much later in a local newspaper.

Barry was held 20 months without bail or trial,
and not given any opportunity to defend himself;
finally -- with inadequate defense at his side -- he
was sentenced to 18 yrs, with no right to appeal.

The gravity of what happened to Barry in France 
bodes dismally for Human Rights, and must 
neither be tolerated nor ignored.

Barry's case speaks to two of the most neglected, 
troubling problems, not only in French Justice, 
but among many Justice systems worldwide: guilt by 
association, and absence of presumption of innocence.

Barry did not know that the person who was to help
him with his stay in France, was, in fact, under
surveillance by French police.  

Nothing whatsoever illegal was found on Barry or 
in his possession.  

Barry has no police record of any kind, anywhere, and
has never been a suspect, for any reason.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


Reports from HR Monitors in Paris

We will post to the List the reports of the 
Paris-based Human Rights Monitors following 
their visits with Barry. 

France is currently under severe criticism from
world Human Rights organizations and from the 
European Court for its worsening climate for Human
Rights.


Translations of French Articles

Periodically, we will share with the List 
translations of articles from French press on 
Human Rights and prison issues in France and 
elsewhere.

This will be a low-volume, moderated list.

Barry was arrested and condemned to 18 years without
right to appeal, despite the fact that he:

- had no drugs or anything illegal on him,
- had not been a suspect, nor had he been under
       surveillance, and
- has no arrest or criminal record, anywhere

Cruel & Inhuman

Verdicts rendered by the Cour d'Assises Speciale,
under so-called Pasqua Laws, are not allowed to
be appealed in the normal sense.

An 18 year sentence without the possibility of appeal
would be cruel and inhuman by any standard, even if 
Barry WERE guilty.  It goes way beyond the pale for 
"civilized" society.  Cell mates of Barry's convicted
of heinous crimes (murder and rape) have been 
sentenced to years less than he.  Persons up
for murder in France are often released in 6 to
10 years.

Apart from the issue of his innocence (which  
subsequent independent investigations have 
supported), Barry's sentence is of a kind almost 
exclusively reserved in France for persons of African
and Arab descent, and for foreigners, who quite 
disproportionately make up France's prison
population.  Amnesty International charges that this
is NOT mere coincidence (links to AI's 1994, 1997
and 1998 Reports on France, are found below).

Appeals to the French government to have Barry's 
case reconsidered on the basis of procedural errors,
and numerous appeals to French President Chirac for 
a pardon ("demande de grace") for Barry, have been
ignored.

DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS

Barry is now in his 6th year, held in semi-isolation
at the notorious, dreaded Clairvaux Prison (compared
to the Alcatraz Prison of old) in a 6X12-ft cell. 

Conditions are deplorable, with no heat of any kind,
except body heat.  Barry, at 6'4" (1m95), has seen
his weight drop to 139 lbs (63 kilos), triggered
by malnutrition.

Depression and suicide are "l'ordre du jour" all
around him.  Recently, Barry's young Senegalese cell
mate attempted suicide by jumping off a building --
ironically, all this happening while Barry was
visiting with Human Rights Monitors.

They say of the prison where he is:  "You check 
in, but you might not check out." 

Barry, still a young man, would be nearly 50 years 
old if he survived to be released in the year 2012.

Since May 1994, only 4 persons outside the 
French criminal justice system, have succeeded 
in obtaining the "permis de visite" necessary 
to visit Barry in prison.  Others who have 
applied have received no response from
French authorities, despite months, even years,
of waiting, and despite follow up letters and 
phone calls, to both French authorities and to the
American Embassy.

PURPOSE

The main purpose of this List will be to keep us
all informed, and to exchange ideas on how we can help.

Please help SHARE information on this case with 
others.


THANK YOU!

Family & Friends

BarrySupport@starmail.com
JUSTICE@comports.com

____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________


�
UPDATE ON BARRY's CASE BY THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE:
�
_________________________________________________
�
�
We learned about Barry's case one year after his arrest. At that 
time he had lawyers, who were old acquaintances of a friend of
his.� Barry could not afford a regular criminal lawyer and his
family did not have the money to finance one. Roughly speaking it 
would have cost in the order of 50,000 francs for starters and
the lawyers helped for close to nothing. However, they were not
criminal lawyers and seeing them in action indicated that they
were really not competent to handle this case. They also had
problems with Barry's English, they did not always understand
what he was saying. We later determined that they did not have
all the facts and missed some critical points in his case.
�
Barry was convicted and got 18 years. This decision was
appealed before� the Cour de Cassation, which decides only
technical aspects of the case, not the facts. This cost a lot of 
money and produced no results.
�
After Cassation we took all the information we had and went to a 
human rights lawyer who looked over the information with regard
to an appeal to the European Court. The problem here was that
only issues brought up during the trial could be brought before
that court. Barry's original lawyers did not bring up issues we
later found to be important.
�
At that point we did get several members of the Observatoire
International des Prisons (OIP) interested in Barry's case, and
they still are. [The OIP is one of the Human Rights organizations 
most active in France -- in trying to improve prison conditions
and in making appeals on behalf of abused prisoners.] They
decided that a direct appeal to the President of the Republic was in 
order. This would ask for a Presidential pardon for Barry. An appeal 
was made and many letters sent to President Chirac on
Barry's behalf.
�
This request for a pardon was refused.� We feel now that this
request was a bit premature and badly managed on our part. We
feel that the most important thing in France is to have a co-
sponsor who is an important person in French politics. We did not 
have that.
�
With regard to what occurs in French prisons and the treatment of 
prisoners, we feel that the Observatoire is a more effective group than 
Amnesty International. The latter organization tends to deal in high 
profile cases. Barry's case never attracted any attention in the French 
or American press. Next, the abuses that we feel he was subject to in 
his case were not grossly against his rights in comparison with others 
accused and convicted in France. In fact, from an abuse standpoint his 
case is not exceptional, most of the accused in France are treated in 
the same fashion.
�
[Over recent years, France has received severe criticism from
international Human Rights organizations and the European Court
for its worsening record of Human Rights violations, especially
against persons of Arab and African descent.]
�
What makes Barry's case exceptional is that he is innocent. This may 
occur in 1-5% of the cases in France. But the system here is not 
geared to dealing with potentially innocent people, the
presumption of guilt is standard. We have repeatedly distributed 
with Barry's newletters translated article of people convicted or 
held for a long time and then having their case annulled on 
evidence or accusations that would not produce an indictment in
the USA. In fact, the European Humans Rights Commission, and
Amnesty, constantly bring up cases of abuse in France. Right now, 
new laws are being proposed before the French Assembly.
�
Finally, a member of the Observatoire brought Barry's case to the 
European Court.  The Court recently turned down the request to 
review Barry's case, because his legal defense had failed
to introduce during trial the various elements of Human Rights 
violation.  

The specialty of Barry's attorneys was commercial, not criminal, law.
�
We should also state that the French authorities did not respect 
Barry's rights under the article on Counsular Accords of the
Vienna Convention which required them to notify the American
Embassy of Barry's arrest without delay.
�
We have made two requests to the State Dept on this, one directly 
to the Secretary of State, and have not yet received a response
as to their having even received Barry's dossier on this matter. If the 
American Government would at least acknowledge a violation on the part 
of the French, we might have a chance before the European Court on 
that issue at least, and it might permit us to open others.
�
Human Rights Committee
�
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________


Main Websites:

http://www.poboxes.com/justice
http://members.aol.com/FreeBarry1/index.html

Please read the OPEN LETTER to French President
Chirac, itemizing how and where French police erred:

http://www.poboxes.com/JUSTICE (click OPEN LETTER)

French Press on MASS ARRESTS, MASS TRIALS in France:
http://x1.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=401425138

Read the Saga of a Dutchman who set out to "Find" Barry
http://x1.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=399961874


 Growing Peril for Tourists & Visitors in France: 2 Deaths

For an update on 2 shocking deaths in France -- of
an American and a Zairian while in custody of
French police -- please go to: 

http://x2.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=416955645
http://x10.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=417329391

_____________________________________________________


Version Francaise:

     http://www.artinternet.fr/gryga/barry.htm
     http://x13.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=338585794


\___ \___ \___ \___ \___ \___ \___ \___ \___ \___ \___ \___ 



We appreciate the concern that many in the Human Rights community
have individually expressed for Barry's plight.


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 trial, 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


__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________



Author:  Earl Evleth, France

Subject:  Reflections; Permanent Residence Status, 6 feet under


�
..We talked with Barry, a black African-American (born in Africa, 
naturalized in the USA) about (his experience of "traveling while black")
-- while visiting him in prison this weekend. 

He is located at Clarivaux, 250 km east of Paris and we make 
the trip twice a month to keep his spirits up. He will be "celebrating 
his 6th birthday in prison on July 2.� We have been visiting him since 
1995, and so have gotten to know each other fairly well. Barry came to 
the USA, South Central in LA, in the early 1980s as a teenager. Besides 
English he now speaks French and, of course his native language. He has 
some experiences traveling while black. 
�
He had remarked that while serving in Germany in the US military, he had 
been stopped a number of times by the German authorities for his papers 
and been told that his American passport was "false", long with his US 
military papers. 
�
This kind of hassle may be a lead-in threat by whatever authority to see 
if the person cracks.� The NY police policy of stopping a lot of blacks 
on the street for questioning and body searches may 
produce statistical results, a minority of the people hassled are guilty 
of something. 
�
But majority are "inconvenienced" by what can become police state 
methods. Obviously arresting everybody willynilly and throwing them in 
prison will reduce crime to zero except for the crime of treating 
everybody in this fashion. The unreasonable search and seizure provision 
in the Constitution was addressed to this issue. Just being black is not 
reason enough, whatever the crime rates. 
�
But the problem of being a member of a minority group is that not only 
is one subject to unfair treatment by the majority group. The minority 
group itself learns to be prejudice against other members of the group. 
They take a lesson from the majority. In this case, the minority group 
has "internalized" the standards of the majority. 
�
A black man trying to get a taxi in New York from a black taxi 
cab driver will� be denied his rights to travel as freely as a 
white person. Being nicely dressed helps out but does not overcome this 
prejudice.� Richburg in his book "Out of America" describes his 3 years 
as a black journalist for the Washington Post.� 

Some of his writing is directed to why he left Africa without any 
feelings of having "roots" in that continent, somewhat similar to my own 
feeling about my own English "roots".� Some conservatives might find 
Richburg very like Clarence Thomas, a no nonsense black from fairly 
middle class background who "pulled himself up by his own bootstraps".
The 
kind of upward mobile minority person the American dream is built on.� 

Richburg also describes the black-on-black prejudice that permeates much 
of black Africa. He gives some incidents of life-threatening situations 
in which the validity of his and other black American passports were 
denied by local thugs looking for members of the "other tribe" to kill.� 
A couple of years ago he got transferred to Hong Kong. There he was 
subjected to the "black devil" appellation by some Chinese, but he said 
that whites got the "white devil" appellation, so it was not really 
racists against only blacks, just anybody not Chinese.
�
Barry just wrote us the following, we had sent him a copy of the article 
on the French Arab student on LAX who was falsely accused of having a 
false passport. He talks about WC, a French prisoner who� is� black. We 
have met WC during prison visits, a handsome muscular giant with a shave 
head playing the part.� WC went to LA for a while and learned his 
"profession" there. He learned about drive-by shootings and imported the 
technique here, only to get 15 years in prison. His efforts of
learning crime the American way were rewarded in France. 
�


Barry wrote:
�
� � � � "I saw the story about the guy who got sent back from LA even 
tho' his passport was in good shape.� WC had the same problem when he 
went to LA in 1990� but in his case they told him he's fake but the 
passport was alright.� They told him he was fake because there are no 
blacks in France. It's one of the reasons he hates France to this day - 
This business about there are no blacks in France haunted him throughout 
his stay in LA.� He'd tell the guys in the hood he's from France and 
they'll bust out laughing and tell him to <<get outta here, there's no 
nigaz in France>>� Anyway WC, being used to hostility, was able to yell 
at the Immigration officers and they finally let him in.� While in LA he 
was well behaved, because - in his own words - <<Them dudes in LA makes 
the basest French gangster look like a pastor>>.

� � � � Traveling while Arab or Black is something I've experienced so 
often in Europe that I thought it to be normal because Europe is a place 
where they check your papers 2-3 times a day."
�


What Barry's says is true. I have never had my papers check on the 
street by a cop in France in all the years I have been here (around 
30).� But often enough one sees Africans being asked for their papers. 
Actually their dress and method of walking makes Africans standout more 
than a local black.� The French they speak is different. Those French 
blacks from the Caribbean consider themselves French and the French 
police (some of whom are black) are careful not to offend them by asking 
for their papers. There are a number of illegal Africans in Europe but 
the success rate in arresting them by an identity check is not 
published. We also have a number of illegal whites from Eastern Europe 
and they get their papers checked now and then.� There are regular 
checks for driver's licenses and the car's papers, insurance, but these 
are not really personal identiy checks and anybody can be stopped. 
Usually this is done in the summer months when the cops have nothing 
else to do. They also check the car to see that the lights work etc.� 
This is viewed as a bother but not a serious one and legitimate. 
�
Strangely enough, of the illegals I have personally known, all of them 
have been Americans. Some Americans feel they don't really have to have 
a visa to stay in France and in one instance I knew a woman who had been 
here 25 years without one. She tried to run for an office in one of the 
American organizations in Paris but the rules are that one has to be a 
legal resident. She was offended when the others (law obeying) would not 
permit her to hold office. She figured that being American was good 
enough.� All but one of these illegals have been white. The one black 
American woman I knew recounted how she had been arrested for being on 
the commuter train without a ticket. The police thought she was African 
and pushed her around violently� (I saw the marks on her arms from some 
sort of� encounter), insulted her. She speaks pretty good French (having 
been here for years) and the police did not recognize her as being 
American by accent. Finally they found her American passport in her 
purse and immediately released her even though she was obviously in the 
country illegally.� 
�
The other American illegal I knew, John, was told to leave the country 
"ejected" for somewhat funny reasons. He was living with one French 
woman and fooling around with another. The mother� of the "other" found 
out and told daddy, a high up fonctionnaire in the Interior Ministry. 
The American had 24 hours to leave the country. He left his stuff with 
us and came back in illegally 6 months later. Eventually he was killed 
in a head on collision in France and ended up being given permanent 
residence status, 6 feet under.� You finally made it, John.


Earl Evleth
France

____________________________


THANK YOU!

Family & Friends

BarrySupport@starmail.com
JUSTICE@comports.com









___________________________________________________________________
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