🚀 go-pugleaf

Subject:      Human Rights Nightmares in France
FWD'd From:   Dr. Jai Maharaj
Message-ID:   <France-0039.980522@news.mantra.com>
Newsgroups:  
soc.culture.french,soc.rights.human,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.british


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         PLEASE SEND TO: JUSTICE@STARMAIL.COM



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[Below, please also find an UPDATE on the American tourist wrongfully 
    arrested, convicted & condemned in France to 18 yrs; now 
    vendicated by an independent investigation.  A disturbing,
    still-evolving case, which the international community may
    now be able to help...]



HUMAN RIGHTS ALERT: FRANCE


The European Council's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has
exposed a shocking pattern of physical and even sexual abuse 
perpetrated by French police on prisoners, and of deplorable conditions
in French detention centers and prisons -- including a virtual
suspension of fundamental Human Rights for detainees in many 
instances and "...decrepit beds, worn and dirty mattresses and 
blankets, sinks and toilets which are 'dilapidated and 
unhealthy ...,' lice, rats, limited use of the showers."

The following articles from Liberation, May 14 and May 18 1998,
provide overdue documentation published in respected, 
mainstream French press about these conditions -- conditions that are 
stereotypically attributed only to countries ruled by despots who are 
free to assail Human Rights and scoff at issues of "Justice" and 
fairness.

France is sleeping with strange bedfellows.

Kudos to Liberation for devoting 2-page spreads to this troubling, 
long-ignored problem, which runs contrary to the historical 
aspirations of the French to provide a global beacon light for 
Human Rights.

[Find articles at bottom]


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HUMAN RIGHTS ACTION - L'Affaire Barry BRAIMAH 
     New Twists in a Kafkaesque Nightmare

UPDATE: American tourist wrongfully arrested, convicted, imprisoned;
     now vendicated in a new independent investigation

Please go to the Justice Site for this update and for instructions 
     on how we, in the international community, can help

Help the cause of Justice by linking this Site with your own Page:

           http://www.poboxes.com/justice

Find at this Site links to translated French articles on 
     Human Rights and on prison issues

Write to Barry's family and friends if willing to participate in 
     future support actions: 

           Justice@starmail.com

Send a message of goodwill to Barry at:

           Barry BRAIMAH
           Ecrou 875158 -Div. 3/208
           Allee des Thuyas
           94261 Fresnes - CEDEX
           FRANCE

Or, send it to both FreeBarry1@aol.com and Justice@starmail.com
     and it will be printed out and forwarded to Barry in prison


OPEN LETTER

The OPEN LETTER to President Jacques Chirac on how and where
     French police and authorities erred, and sample appeal 
     letters on which persons willing to help can model their
     own, are found at http://www.poboxes.com/justice

     Or, please write: Justice@starmail.com


A LITANY OF HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATIONS:

Barry was held 20 months without trial or bail or sentence or ability
     to defend himself; he was held in virtual isolation -- and 
     to this day, only 3 "outside" persons have gained permission 
     to visit him at the prison.
 
Following Barry's arrest, he was subjected to a several-day 
     interrogation during which French authorities did not  
     notify the American Embassy about his arrest as he requested 
     and as is required by international consular agreements 
     (American Embassy staff accidentally found a notice in a local 
     newspaper); he was denied legal counsel and the ability to 
     contact anyone; he was denied food, water and use of
     the bathroom for prolonged periods, which amounted to a 
     form of torture; he was coerced to sign statements written 
     in French without the benefit of translation -- these 
     statements implicated him and were later used against him 
     in court; it took Barry and his French attorney 1.5 years 
      -- after his conviction! -- to receive an abridged copy 
     of his dossier.


THE TRIAL

A French official stood before the court and urged it to give the
     defendants of African descent longer sentences because 
     they "are bothered less by prison where conditions are 
     better than what they are used to in normal life..."

     These comments were never challenged, corrected or excised
     from court records

     Right on cue, the jury gave Barry 18 years, no right to
     appeal.

Whether GUILTY or NOT of some offense, what has happened to 
     Barry goes way beyond the pale for civilized socity, and must 
     not be ignored.  If nothing more, this is an example of the 
     excesses of the state, the powerlessness of the individual,
     and the lack of judicial guarantees for fair play 
     


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BACKGROUND SYNOPSIS:  L'Affaire Barry BRAIMAH

Guilt by association and absence of presumption of innocence


This "forgotten" American tourist, given 18 years with 
    no right to appeal, will be nearly 50 years old if he survives
    to be released in the year 2012.  

This amounts to a virtual death sentence.

Barry will pass his 5th consecutive birthday in a 6'X12' French 
    prison cell on July 2.  His morale has taken a savage 
    beating, but thanks to expressions of concern and 
    support, Barry has not given up hope.

Evidence supports that Barry was arrested not due to any fault of
    his, but by mistaken identity and for his associations--i.e., 
    "knowing" someone (referred to him for help with finding lodging
    in Paris) whom French police -- unknown to Barry -- had under
    surveillance for suspicion of trafficking.

At 6'4" (1m95), Barry has seen his weight plummet to  
    139 lbs (63 kilos), with depression and illness ever stalking.

These past 4 years have been nothing short of full-blown 
    Kafkaesque, leaving Barry and his family devastated, and 
    Barry's life and dreams, in shambles.  And with no end in sight.

Barry's case speaks to specific lingering deficiencies in Human 
    Rights and in the criminal justice system in France, a microcosm
    of a deeper erosion of Human Rights confronting Humankind

Guilt by association and absence of presumption of innocence
    are alive and well in France, as Robert DeNiro can attest

These deficiencies provide the underpinnings of "what went wrong" 
    for Barry only hours after arriving in France for 
    his first visit.  No drugs or anything illegal were found
    on him, he has no record of arrest or illicit involvement of any 
    kind, and he was not known to French police prior to his arrest 
    upon arriving in France.

"Race" (Barry being African American) probably played a role.  French
    prisons are disproportionately filled -- absurdly so -- with 
    persons of African and Arab descent, and with persons of color.
    Amnesty has documented an entrenched pattern of abuse and racism 
    in France's criminal justice system -- especially targeting young
    persons of ethnic minorities.

Barry's family hopes that you will take the time to send him a 
    goodwill message, or message of support for his Human Rights.  

Put French authorities on notice that they are being "watched."  
    The more contact prisoners have with the outside, generally 
    the better they are treated.

French prison conditions are deplorable and suicides run rampant.

Please help save a life ... for the price of a stamp.


GO TO:      http://www.poboxes.com/justice
            Or write: Justice@starmail.com


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LIBERATION, 14 May 1998

    "The Police Are Always Ready with the Club, Quick to Hit: 
    A Report from the Council of Europe Condemns the Regular Beatings"

    by Jean Quatremer

It is better to be arrested by the gendarmes than to be questioned by the
police.  According to a report of about 100 pages made public today, at the
Strasbourg headquarters of the Council of Europe, by the European Committee
for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), the French police - notably in Paris,
Marseille and Montpelier - have a real penchant for regular beatings,
either at the time of the arrest, or during rough interrogations, penchant
which the gendarmes do not share.  The CPT insists that it has collected no
testimony on violence implicating gendarmes.  According to this study,
police violence especially targets people "of North African or black
African origin and/or persons arrested because they are suspected of
possessing or trafficking in drugs." It must not be believed that, once
the "mistreatments" are over - "slaps, fist blows and/or kicks, club blows,
tight handcuffing behind the back for prolonged periods " - the arrested
person can catch his breath in his cell.
  
According to the conclusions of the CPT, when there is garde a vue, the
material conditions found in the police stations are deplorable: "Holding
people in minimally equipped quarters, without giving them mattresses and
blankets, not even always assuring them of the possibility of stretching
out to sleep, and especially keeping the lights constantly on (sometimes
very bright) is not acceptable."

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or
Degrading Treatments or Penalties is a body made up of independent European
experts connected with the Council of Europe, which groups 40 countries of
greater Europe.  It is a 1987 convention, which took effect in 1989, which
created it, permitting the committee to go to all places of detention,
without any hindrance, to see how people deprived of freedom are treated. 
The CPT then writes a report, which is transmitted to the governmental
authorities so they can respond.  The procedure is weighty - which explains
the time lapse between the CPT visit to France in October 1996 and the
publication of the report - but it guarantees the impartiality of its
observations.  The CPT has proved its efficiency: no State liking to be
publicly accused, it generally makes it a point of honor to try to take
care of the "dysfunction." And the committee notes that, since its first
visit to France in 1991, a lot has been done to improve detention
conditions and prisoners' rights.  Nonetheless, reading the second report
on France, one can only note that there is still a lot to be done before
human rights are fully respected.

For the accusations made against the police are serious.  Certainly, the
CPT is reporting prisoners' "allegations." But it states that they have
often been corroborated by "medical data." And it gives a whole series of
examples.  At random: after a stay in the quarters of the 4th division of
the judicial police in Paris, one prisoner ended up with "a double fracture
of the jaw" and "star-shaped bruises on the back compatible with a blow or
a kick." The Council of Europe experts give a figure: at the medico-legal
emergency service of the Hotel-Dieu in Paris, "about 11% show traumatic
lesions related to allegations of violence by the police forces".

"Most often," the CPT notes, " the mistreatment is inflicted at the moment
of the arrest, when the person is already under control."  But the police
also use beatings during interrogations.  The committee is therefore asking
that the policemen be reminded that "the use of force must be limited to
what is strictly necessary" during the arrest, and that a "code of conduct
for police interrogations" should be drawn up.  The CPT also insists on the
fact that "the use of mistreatment is an ineffective method for obtaining
reliable proof in the fight against crime."  

In the administrative retention centers and in the prisons, the situation,
even if it has improved in a few places, in particular the Baumettes prison
in Marseille, does not honor France.  The CPT has thus been informed of
"sexual abuses perpetrated by prison officials on prisoners housed in a
special section in the Fleury-Merogis maison d'arret." Outside of the
problem of overcrowding, the material conditions are sometimes deplorable
That is notably the case with the Sante maison d'arret in Paris: decrepit
beds, worn and dirty mattresses and blankets, sinks and toilets which are
"dilapidated and unhealthy, without even mentioning the smell," lice, rats,
limited use of the showers.  The CPT feels that the detention conditions in
several divisions of the "high block" are just plain "inhuman and
degrading".


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LIBERATION, 18 May 1998


    "Blows, Insults, Racism: 
    the Crude Facts of Daily Life in Ordinary Police Stations"

    by Brigitte Vital-Durand.


For the first time since the law of January 4, 1993, which initiated the
presence of lawyers in the police stations beginning with the twentieth
hour of the pre-booking detention period (garde a vue), a group of lawyers
has made public their "written observations".

These notes give the detainees' complaints: slaps, kicks, fist blows, club
blows, humiliations, insults, some of them racist in character, which they
say they have been subjected to by the police.  The documents from these
outside intervening parties, appointed by the court  to do "garde a vue
service," also report objective data.  What they report is bad: wounds,
bandages, hematomas, bloodstained clothes.  These observations also mention
a lot of stretching of the law.

If they are not always serious enough to get the procedures canceled, they
nonetheless occur daily: lack of interpreters for the detainees who do not
speak French, lack of closed rooms guaranteeing confidentiality, medicines
not supplied, sanitary napkins which are not given to women who ask for
them, doctors not notified from the very beginning of the garde a vue for
minors.

The lawyers who are denouncing this police mistreatment belong to the
Nanterre bar, in the Hauts-de-Seine, where the big housing projects see
urban violence every day.  Led by the human rights commission of the
Nanterre bar association and the departmental section of the Union of
Lawyers of France (SAF, leftist), they have done their accounting.  In one
month, from November 15, 1997 to December 15, 1997, the Versailles Court of
Appeals noted that for 1090 people detained in garde a vue, there were 206
real attorney visits: "As we intervene only after the twentieth hour, our
observations concern less than a fifth of what really happens," explains
Me. Beatrice Voss.  "And we counted a 7% incident rate, divided equally
between blows and complaints.  That's enormous, and we are seeing only the
tip of the iceberg."

In case of serious violence, the bar association reports it to the court. 
Me. Odile Sidem-Poulain, president of the association's human rights
commission, notes that "after it is reported, nothing happens.  We have
almost never gotten prosecutions, or even administrative sanctions.  For
the case of one minor, injured in the head, the court gave us an affidavit
indicating that he may have been thrown against a wall."

At the court, the Nanterre prosecutor, Yves Bot, tells a very different
story.  He talks about "permanent control"  exercised by himself or his
assistants, surprise visits to the police stations.  He boasts of his "very
special vigilance" and his total "absence of laxity in this area."  "Every
month, there is a meeting at the Nanterre court with the court president,
the head of the bar association and myself.  In addition, when something
abnormal happens, the head of the bar association telephones me, and within
the hour, I have a report on the incident.  When police violence is
established, they are sanctioned."   The prosecutor talks about "vandalism"
committed, after the police have gone, by people whose homes have been
searched, or about self-inflicted wounds: "We're in a system where the
accusation of violence is a way of getting the case thrown out and
destabilizing the police."

The director of public security in Hauts-de-Seine, Jacques Lamotte, counts,
for 4000 policemen in his department, "three or four agents injured every
day while on duty, and the facts are never cleared up."  He gives a figure
for the number of investigations currently being conducted by the General
Inspection of Services (IGS) into violence committed by policemen: "one or
two cases."


"Seen and Heard by the Lawyers, Then Added to the Files: 'Mr. M. Has 
Marks of Blows on His Face and Body"

Article 63-4 of the code of penal procedure stipulates that after twenty
hours of garde a vue, the person arrested can talk with a lawyer for up to
thirty minutes.  At the end of this meeting, the lawyer can present
"written observations." Given to the judicial police officer, the document
becomes part of the file.  The "written observations" we publish here were
written in the police stations of Hauts-de-Seine by lawyers of the Nanterre
bar appointed by the court, during their service periods in 1997.

Boulogne-Billancourt, January 12, 1997, 9:45 AM.  "Mr. H. declares he was
insulted at the beginning of the hearing: "asshole," "I don't like your
looks." Mr. H. suffered violence.  The agent took off his glasses, hit him
with his fist.  He fell to the floor.  Then the hearing calmed down.  Then
the violence started again.  While Mr. H. was handcuffed, he was beaten up.
 The agent held him down with his foot, while another hit him.  Mr. H.,
wanting to escape the blows, hit a window which shattered.  He was struck
because of the broken window.  Then someone entered the room (Mr. L.) and
the violence stopped."

Colombes, January 12, 1997, 2:30 PM. "Mr. B. is in a state of distress, and
is howling, crying, insulting.  He is 16 years old.  He says he has been
struck, shows me a swollen lip.  He was stripped naked and left for a good
while like that.  He says he has a lawyer but no one is willing to notify
him.  He weeps.  He wants to file a complaint.  He wants someone to call
his mother.  He says he was insulted.  It is very hard to reason with him

Suresnes, January 23, 1997, 3 PM. "Mr. M. reports having been heard four
times, three times formally (twice yesterday, once today) and once
informally upon his arrival at the police station.  Each time, he stood
during the whole interrogation.  He was asked to remain standing because
"there aren't enough chairs".

Bagneux, March 28, 1997, 7 PM. "Mr. N. is accused of having sold drugs. 
Was interrogated - saw a doctor - his mother was notified - declared that
the interrogation was rough: although he did not react violently to this
interrogation, he was reportedly struck in the head by the policemen taking
turns.  Was not informed of the maximum duration of the garde a vue - was
not informed that he could save his declarations for a judge -  was
handcuffed, the right wrist is bleeding slightly - confidentiality of the
interview leaves something to be desired; the room is not closed off, there
is no door..."

Issy-les-Moulineaux, April 3, 1997, 9:10 PM. "Young L. complains of the
blows he received during his garde a vue.  He says he was hit with fists
and clubs, that his face was slapped hard.  We note red marks on the front
of the right shinbone, as well as red marks on the face.  L. also complains
that his jaw hurts."

Clamart, April 14, 1997, 7:15 PM. "Young H. complains of having been
slapped several times during his interrogations.  He is having bad stomach
pains and says he has an 8 millimeter ulcer.  Detail: only one of the
policemen who arrested him slapped him when he reached the police station
Nanterre, May 22, 1997, 7:55 PM. "Mr. E.  affirms that when he arrived at
the station, he was struck by a police agent in the face, on the arm, on
the right thigh, and on the left shinbone.  Mr. E. has a hematoma and
numerous wounds around the right eye, he has another large hematoma on the
left forearm.  Mr. E. affirms that he was struck at the time he was being
strip-searched by the police.  Mr. E. has not eaten since his arrest, at
1:00 AM May 22."

Asnieres, May 22, 1997, 8:10 PM. "Mr. M. affirms he was struck by police
agents and officers upon his arrival here, May 21, 1997, around 12:15 AM. 
Mr. M. has marks of blows on his face, torso and neck.  He has a large
wound behind his right ear.  His sweatshirt is stained with blood.  His
arms are covered with wounds and marks of blows.  Mr. M. affirms also that
outside of two sandwiches brought by his brother, May 21, 1997 around 11:30
PM, he has not eaten anything until our interview today."

Antony, June 13, 1997, 6:30 PM. "Mr. B. complains of having been struck
during his garde a vue.  Blows to the knees and the body.  He complains
also that the police agents made insulting remarks to him.  "Dirty Gypsy." 
"Guys like you should be dead.  You're shit."

Bagneux, June 27, 1997, 1:50 PM. "I note that Mr. D. has hematomas on the
right temple.  His right eye is swollen.  He also has a scratch on the left
hand.  He complains that his jaw and his ribs hurt.  Mr. D. affirms that he
was hit during his interrogation, in the police station.  Mr. D. has seen a
doctor who told him it wasn't his problem."

Meudon, August 22, 1997, 1:15 PM. "According to the declarations taken
during the garde a vue, the doctor called to examine Mrs. S. gave her a
prescription for the problems she suffers from (irregular heartbeat,
asthma, anxiety attacks).  However, the medicines prescribed were neither
purchased nor given to Mrs. S.  During the interview she was in a state of
shock (nervous tics, fits of weeping).  The medical visit prescribed by the
code of penal procedure therefore did no good."

Puteaux, September 15, 1997, 9:30 PM. "Mr. D. indicates to me that he was
hit on the head during his interrogation, says he spent the night in the
hospital.  I note that his head is bandaged, that his right eye is very
red, that there are traces of blood on his face.  Mr. D. says he vomited
upon arriving and that he was hit in the stomach during his interrogation

Asnieres, November 12, 1997, 7:35 PM. "I the undersigned, Me. B. lawyer on
duty at the garde a vue, declare that today I saw Mr. N., a 15-year-old
minor.  He affirmed to me that he was hit at the time of his arrest after
he had already been handcuffed."

Levallois-Perret, December 20, 1997.  "The lawyer on duty could see red
bruises on the face.  The detainee affirms he was roughed up during his
interrogation as well as when he arrived at the police station.  He claims
he was hit in the chest and complains that his ribs hurt."


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LIBERATION, 18 May 1998

    "The Policemen Paraded in Front of Me, 
    They Said: 'More Scum'"

    by Brigitte Vital-Durand

A housing project apartment in Gennevilliers, 9th floor.  Monday November
16, 1996.  Six o'clock in the morning.  A team of policemen has come to
search the apartment of a Franco-Moroccan family, one of whose sons is
implicated in drug trafficking.  One of the family's daughters is to be
married on Friday.  The father is at work.  The girl is sleeping, as is her
mother, her ten-year-old sister, and a relative.  The search will last
almost an hour.  On returning home, the father takes his video camera and
films.  Front door broken in, interphone pulled from the wall, clothes,
papers, objects litter the corridor.  Broken eggs drip from the kitchen
walls onto the floor, the pots and pans, the stove.  Oil covers the
linoleum, mixed with semolina, "we had 25 kilos of it," comments the
mother.  The honey, the tea, the opened packages of almonds are on the
floor, mixed with the laundry.  The family had prepared cakes for the
wedding on Friday.  The mother says: "They threw them out the window, with
the sugar-coated almonds."  The inside of the refrigerator is broken. 
Zucchini, chickpeas, chocolates, raisins are scattered on the floor.  In
the bathroom, there are clothes in the bathtub.  "They poured two liters of
bleach over them, and a package of detergent.  I threw everything out," the
mother says.  She was confined in one room with her children.  She didn't
see the policemen search.  "They were laughing," she says, "and when they
found the little trunk, they were happy.  I heard them say: 'This is it,
we've found it'."  In fact the little trunk contained family photos.  "They
walked on them," says the father.  The wedding dress was also on the floor,
crumpled.  "You really like raking in the money your son brings home from
drugs?"

Ruined: an armoire, two night tables, a dressing table, a TV.  Missing: a
portable computer, a car radio, a flashlight, 900 francs in cash, two
agenda books and address books.  The wedding has been postponed for three
weeks.  The father has filed a complaint, an IGS (General Services
Inspection) is in course.

Ground floor of a building in Gennevilliers.  Sunday, January 5, 1997,
10:30 PM. "It's true, I butted him with my head and he fell.  He had
brought out his club in front of my mother."  The person who did the head

butting is 23 years old.  French of Algerian origin.  The victim is a
policeman, member of the BAC (anti-crime brigade).  The young man was
helping a neighbor who had had a sick spell in the lobby of the building. 
"There were a lot of people," he says, "the sick girl, my mother, another
mother, the grocery lady, a priest who lives just next door to me."  The
crowd attracted three policemen from the BAC on patrol.  They entered the
building too.  The young man, whose back was to the front door, didn't see
them.  The girl was choking.  He wanted to fetch water.  In his haste, he
involuntarily ran into one of the three policemen.  Another police team
arrived.  Seeing the jostling, one of them brandished his club.  "He was
going to hit me in front of my mother, I went crazy, I was trembling, I
took off my jacket, I told him: 'Let's see if you're a man,' and I butted
him."

The witnesses present, gathered behind the lobby's glass door, saw the
rest: the young man put on the ground, flat on his stomach, handcuffed, a
policeman's foot on his back, a club held over his head.  They saw the
kicks to his legs, sides, face.  They heard: "Asshole, bastard, dirty dog
 The young man says that, in the car taking him to the police station, the
blows and insults continued: "Dirty Arab,."  "At the station, I was still
handcuffed," he continues, "they threw me into the stairs, tripped me up. 
They attached me by one hand to a bench.  I had blood on my face.  The
policemen came to see me one after another, they said: 'More scum.'."  The
doctor who examined the young man during his garde a vue asked that he be
admitted to the radiology service of  the Louis-Mourier Hospital in
Colombes.  November 15, 1997, the Nanterre court sentenced him to two
months in prison, suspended, for "violence against a policeman" and gave him
a 4500 franc fine with 1500 francs damages to be paid to the policeman. 
Supported notably by the testimony of the priest, he has filed a complaint.
 The case is being investigated.

Office of the investigating judge at the Nanterre police court.  Sunday,
March 30, 1997, 7 PM.  Maitre Claire Jager, court appointed lawyer, was on
duty for the cases: "The defendant came out of the depot after a
twenty-four hour garde a vue.  He was a Frenchman of Moroccan origin.  He
was about thirty, he worked in construction.  His face was swollen, with
traces of dried blood and hematomas.  He said he also had the marks of
blows on his torso and back, I didn't ask him to show them to me. 
Obviously he didn't understand anything of what was being said while on his
statement, it was said that he spoke and understood French.  We asked for
an interpreter.  The Asnieres police had arrested his brother for drugs,
and they searched the home of his father, in a residence.  In a drawer, the
policemen found a false alien resident's card in his name.  He used it
before his marriage to a Frenchwoman legalized his situation.  The police
took him to his wife's home.  He had no key.  The police began to hit him
with their fists in front of the closed door.  While his papers were in
order, they wanted to make him say he had made a marriage of convenience. 
His story was acted on by the investigating judge."  "Too happy to have
gotten out of it," the defendant declared to the lawyer on duty that he
would not file a complaint.  The court has begun an investigation for
possession of false documents and use thereof.  The case is pending.       
    
_______________


Amnesty & Justice


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