POLICE TO PUBLISH PEACH DEATH FILE (UK)

Scotland Yard is preparing to finally publish a report into the death of anti-racism activist Blair Peach more than three decades ago.

Prosecutors have completed a review of the document and passed their findings back to the London force.

Relatives of the dead man have been campaigning to obtain a secret internal review of the killing for many years.

Last year Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said he was willing to publish the document but only after it had been checked by solicitors.

A CPS spokeswoman confirmed officials have completed their work and given their findings back to officers. It is understood a copy of the report has already been passed to solicitors representing Mr Peach's partner, Celia Stubbs.

The decision to publish was made after public pressure to reveal the almost forgotten review in the months after the death of Ian Tomlinson during G20 protests.

A shadow hung over the death of Mr Peach, 33, since he was hit over the head at a demonstration against the National Front in Southall, west London, in 1979.

Members of the force's Special Patrol Group were suspected of hitting him with a rubberised police radio or a lead-filled cosh.

The report written by Commander John Cass, a former senior officer at the Met's internal complaints department, examined his death. He is believed to have recommended the prosecution of police officers, although no charges were ever brought.

Speaking last June, Sir Paul said the report should be published, possibly by the end of the year, with some details censored. The Metropolitan Police Authority unanimously supported a decision to review the documents with a view to publishing them.

Daily Express

COURT ALLOWS HOLOCAUST CARTOON AS FREE SPEECH (Netherlands)

The sketch was published last year in response to the infamous Danish cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed. The AEL, a Pan-Arab organisation active in Belgium and the Netherlands, hoped its counter cartoon would demonstrate the "hypocrisy" that it felt was commonplace in public debate. The cartoon shows two figures standing beside a stack of corpses marked with a sign that says ‘Auswitch’ [sic]. "We have to get to 6,000,000 somehow," one character exclaims. The other responds by saying: "I don’t think they are Jews". The AEL wanted to prove that, while cartoons offensive to Muslims are accepted in the Christian West, drawings depicting religious themes that are deemed controversial are not. In its ruling, the court called the AEL drawing grievous, insulting and bad taste. The context in which the cartoon was created however, convinced the judge that its publication punishable. In its ruling, the court took into account that the AEL believes the genocide of the Jewish people is an historical fact. The AEL pointed this out in both a press release and a disclaimer it printed beside the cartoon. The public prosecutor had proposed a plea bargain that required the AEL to take the cartoon off its website. After the AEL failed to comply, charges were brought against it. The prosecutor sought only minor fines. In his ruling, the judge took into account that Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights also guarantees the right to shock, offend or insult others through public expression. Governments are only allowed to prohibit this type of expression if specific laws exist to govern it and as long as the restriction is "necessary for a democratic society" to function. The context of an expression as well as the proportionality of censorship are important considerations in this respect. The judge found that the AEL drawing was part of a "cartoon campaign" conducted by the AEL against the perceived double standard prevalent in the West. "In this case, freedom of speech weighs more heavily than the right of others not to be discriminated against," the court stated. The AEL's right to publish an offensive cartoon "should be guaranteed" in light of the specific context and the AEL's intent, the court ruled.


The NRC

FAR-RIGHT PARTY BARRED FROM TRIAL OF SPANISH JUDGE

A Spanish magistrate trying high-profile judge Baltasar Garzon over his probe into Franco-era abuses barred Friday a far-right party from the trial, dismissing its complaints. The facist Falange party was one of three far-right groups that had levelled charges against Gazon that prompted Supreme Court judge Luciano Varela to put him on trial, a decision condemned by rights groups. Varela's exlcusion of the Falange means the trial could only go ahead if the judge accepts the charges from the two other complainants, media said. A member of the Falange Espanola de las Jons, confirmed to AFP it had been excluded from court. A judicial source said Varela ruled that the party could not be among the plaintiffs because the charges it had presented against Garzon contained ideological and personal elements and the party had not removed these elements from its complaint before a deadline to do so. Falange said on its website that it would appeal Varela's decision to expel it from the legal proceedings. Falange Espanola de los Jons is one of several offshoots of the Falange, the party that provided the ideological basis for the rule of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship which lasted from the end of Spain's 1936-39 civil war and his death in 1975. Varela has indicted Garzon for abuse of power for opening an investigation in 2008 into the disappearance of tens of thousands of people during the civil war and Franco's subsequent right-wing dictatorship, which last until his death in 1975. The judge argued that Garzon had "consciously ignored" a 1977 amnesty law with the launch of the probe. Garzon dropped his probe into Franco-era crimes within months of launching it after state prosecutors and conservative politicians questioned his jurisdiction. Garzon made world headlines in October 1998 when he ordered the arrest of Chile's former strongman Augusto Pinochet in London, under the principle of "universal jurisdiction" which held that heinous crimes like torture or terrorism can be tried in Spain even if they had no link to the country. Garzon also indicted Osama bin Laden in 2003 for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and looked into the deaths of Spaniards in Argentina during the military regime of 1976-83.


AFP

BNP under fire in Redbridge over anti-Islamic leaflet

A RABBI has branded an election leaflet put out by the British National Party as "blatantly Islamaphobic".

The leaflets have been sent to Jewish voters showing people dressed in Islamic clothing performing Nazi salutes and holding banners bearing anti-Semitic claims such as "God Bless Hitler".

Dr Mohammed Fahim, Imam of South Woodford Mosque, Mulberry Way, said: "What they are putting in their leaflets they are just making up to gain votes.

"An average person with average intelligence would recognise it as fictional."

Bashir Chaudhry, chairman of the League of British Muslims and the Ilford Muslim Community Centre, said: "There are issues they should be tackling, not turning a community against another community."

Rabbi David Hulbert, of Bet Tikvah Synagogue, Newbury Park, and a member of the borough's Three Faiths Forum, which is a coalition between Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities, said: "It's blatantly Islamaphobic.
"I really don't think they will be picking up many votes from the Jewish community here."

Gerry Gable, joint co-ordinator of Redbridge and Epping Forest Together Now and publisher of the anti-racism magazine Spotlight, urged anyone who receives a leaflet to hand it over to the police.

He said: "It's intended to cause trouble between the two communities.

"I think they are going to have a bit of a job around here."

BNP Cllr Julian Leppert, who is hoping to regain his council seat for Hainault and is also standing as an MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, said the images on the leaflet were designed to be attention grabbing.

He said: "We're using this election to bury some of the myths about the British National Party.

"If you read the Jewish press, they are still banging on about the same old rubbish, saying we're Nazis.

"Some of those images on the front are to remind people of a few home truths.

"They're all pictures taken from genuine news stories."

A police spokesman said: "It is the policy of the Metropolitan Police Service not to comment on party political literature. If it is alleged that any party has transgressed the law, then any allegation will be investigated at that time.

Illford Recorder