arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Satpal Ram, should be released from prison early next week. His
conviction has not been quashed. There will be a bulletin sent out as
soon as he walks out of the prison gate

Threatened with legal action the Home Office have been forced to
order Satpal Ram's release. Last Thursday the Treasury Solicitor
decided they would not contest a Judicial Review sought by Satpal's
legal team, that his continued imprisonment was unlawful.

On the 27th October 2000 the Parole Board gave an unprecedented
recommendation supporting the immediate release of Satpal Ram.
However the then Home Secretary Jack Straw, refused to accept the
recommendation and ordered that Satpal, should remain in prison.

Dennis Stafford's recent victory at the European Court of Human
Rights has forced the present Home Secretary David Blunkett to
reverse that decision. The ruling clearly stated that the continued
detention by the Home Secretary, after the parole boards
recommendation to release someone was illegal.

Satpal Ram's lawyer, Daniel Guedalla, said: "It does not mean they
accept he is innocent and he is still challenging his wrongful
conviction. This is a victory but not complete vindication. He is
still on a life licence until his conviction is quashed. He lost 18
months or more of his liberty because of Jack Straw interfering."

Satpal's campaign to clear his name will continue after his release.
http://www.appleonline.net/satpal/

======================
Asian who killed man in race row freed after 15 years

Vikram Dodd, The Guardian, Saturday June 15, 2002

An Asian man who says he was wrongly convicted of murder after
defending himself from a racist attack is to be released after 15
years in jail, the Home Office confirmed yesterday.

Friends and supporters of Satpal Ram, 36, who was jailed for life in
1987 for stabbing a white man in an Indian restaurant in Birmingham
during a fight say he is the victim of one of the worst miscarriages
of justice in recent years.

Mr Ram said the man, Clarke Pearce, had racially abused him before
attacking and slashing him with broken glass. The judge at his trial
had recommended he serve an 11 year sentence, but Mr Ram was kept in
jail longer as he refused to admit his guilt.

His freedom, expected next week, was a result of a European court
ruling last month.

In a separate case, Strasbourg judges ruled that the home secretary
had no right to overrule a decision of a parole board to release a
prisoner, known as the Stafford ruling.

This is what had happened to Mr Ram in 2000 when, in an unprecedented
move, the then home secretary Jack Straw reversed a parole board
decision to free him. The board had said Mr Ram no longer posed a
danger to the public.

This week government lawyers decided they could not oppose a court
challenge to Mr Straw's decision launched by Mr Ram's lawyers. Mr Ram
could be released from Blantyre house, Kent, as early as Monday.

Mr Ram's lawyer, Daniel Guedalla, said: "It does not mean they accept
he is innocent and he is still challenging his wrongful conviction.
This is a victory but not complete vindication. He is still on a life
licence until his conviction is quashed. He lost 18 months or more of
his liberty because of Jack Straw interfering."

Mr Ram was 20 and working as a warehouseman when he clashed with Mr
Pearce in November 1986. He was eating with two friends when a group
of six white people arrived in the Sky Blue restaurant in Lozells,
Birmingham.

A fight broke out when the white group started racially abusing the
waiters. Mr Pearce smashed a glass on the table and stabbed Mr Ram
twice in the face and in the wrist. Mr Ram claimed he was then pushed
up against a wall with no means of escape, and he used a small
packing knife from his job to defend himself.

Mr Ram's family and supporters say that he was wrongly convicted
because his original lawyers failed properly to prepare his case and
made basic errors during his trial. A crucial witness who could have
supported Mr Ram's account was not called. No translator was provided
for another witness who spoke only Bengali.

Mr Ram has been in repeated clashes with the prison authorities and
has been moved more than 65 times to different prisons. He says he
has been victimised by prison officers.

A Home Office spokeswoman said various procedures would have to be
completed before Mr Ram was released. "The Treasury solicitor decided
not to contest the judicial review as under the terms of the
[European] judgment there was no point."

The prospect of Mr Ram's release was condemned by the dead man's
family. Mr Pearce's sister, Jane Smith, told the Birmingham Evening
Mail: "I'm disgusted. Life should mean life. He murdered my brother."

Mr Ram's case became a cause celebre, with pop bands backing his cause.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,737722,00.html

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