Aleksei Gorinov, a 62-year-old opposition municipal deputy in Moscow was arrested in April 2022 and jailed for calling for an end to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and saying that children were dying every day in the conflict. He was charged with “disseminating knowingly false information about Russian Armed Forces,” a newly instituted criminal offence under Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code.
An appeal hearing in September 2023 upheld the conviction but reduced his 7-year sentence by a month, and in December 2023, Russian human rights defenders raised concerns about Aleksei Gorinov’s poor health.
He was transferred to a prison hospital but remains seriously unwell and has been denied adequate medical care.
Please write to the Prosecutor General and to the Russian Ambassador calling for Aleksei’s immediate and unconditional release. Click here for details.
The February meeting began with our AGM, all officers being re-elected unopposed.
The Chair gave an overview of the year’s activities, speakers and campaigns. North Africa and India have been prominent, with a new initiative on Zimbabwe and ongoing support of the Middle East & North Africa, Football Welcomes and the Death Penalty. We had speakers on Kashmir and Zimbabwe, and a talk on a fund-raising climb of Kilimanjaro for AI by a student whom we sponsored. We held three Write for Rights events in December.
The Secretary reported the perennial problem of access to the local press: the County Gazette has discontinued reports from local societies, and AIUK no longer presents Actions in a readily publicisable form. Suggestions for using other outlets, and our own experience of the Letters page may point a way forward.
Suggestions were made for broadening our appeal, perhaps using email to circulate those on AIUK’s local lists, and promoting hybrid meetings using Teams if this can be done without jeopardising our successful monthly meetings.
Our regular monthly meeting followed. The Groups’ Newsletter urged us to sign a number of AI petitions: for human rights defender Rita Karasartova of Kyrgyzstan; for freedom of expression in Jammu Kashmir; for justice and reparation in Peru after brutal repression of protests; for freedom of expression in Bangladesh before recent elections, and for charges against our adopted Zimbabwean prodemocracy activist Makomborero Haruzivishe to be dropped.
We were reminded of priority campaigns for AIUK: Ending Israeli Apartheid, and Protect the Protest – a call on the Home Secretary to scrap anti-protest laws.
We discussed a letter from Chris Ramsey, ex-SW regional rep, about Amnesty Futures, a group anxious to get back to campaigning on worldwide Individuals at Risk rather than disproportionately increasing the scale of work and deployment of resources on thematic UK-focused human rights issues. He will be addressing our March meeting to further clarify concerns about and hopes for AIUK.
Our Middle East lead had written to President al-Sisi about the detention and torture of Anas al-Beltagy, the son of an Opposition politician. Our India lead will be writing to the Indian High Commissioner about two members of the BK16 who are bailed but still in goal. Meantime another member is hoping to organise a speaker on Russia.
There is an Eat Festival in Taunton on 11 May – we are hoping to have a publicity stall at this.
Our recommended Media of the Month is Jon Ronson’s BBC podcast series ‘Things Fell Apart’ – human stories from the history of the culture wars.
Our next meeting is at 7.30pm on Tuesday 12 March at the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton. Newcomers are always welcome!
Write for Rights being the stand-out event in December we took stock of how we had got on, with the feeling that we needed to reach outside our core audience to draw more people in. Hence the promotional visit to the Taunton campus of Bridgwater Tech, although slow going, seemed a good place to proselytise in the future. More school events for 2024 would be good.
Future December visits to Taunton Minster – St Mary’s – need to attach to some other event for maximum impact. We took part in the Christmas Tree Festival in Buckland St Mary – not an obvious place but hopefully we reached out to a few unfamiliar people there.
Meantime we plan for a stall at the Taunton Eat festival in May.
We heard reports of members’ work on campaigns. Sue had written on behalf of prominent Write for Rights activist Chaima Issa of Tunisia, urging the quashing of her spurious military court conviction, and also on behalf of Tunisian MP Abir Moussi. According to her defence lawyer, she faces charges including “attempting to change the form of government”, “inciting citizens to arm themselves against each other” and “provoking disorder on Tunisian territory”.
Ben gave us quick overview of the death penalty in the USA. It seems to be in a state of some disarray, with more legal challenges and mistakes in attempts to carry it out. The practicalities of it are becoming less and less tenable – witness the case of the botched execution attempt of Kevin Smith, on death row since 1988, his execution now scheduled for later this January.
Alun updated us on India & Kashmir with special reference to the BK16: 8 of them in prison (2 granted bail) and 5 out on bail; he will write a letter for them to the Indian authorities on the Group’s behalf. The Indian government must end the repression of rights in Jammu and Kashmir.
Our must-be-seen media this month is the ITV drama Mr Bates v the Post Office detailing the outrageous behaviour of the Post Office over the Horizon scandal.
The meeting next month includes our AGM; it’s on Tuesday 13 February at the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton. Do feel free to join us – all are welcome.
Cherry Bird, Amnesty’s Country Coordinator for India and Nepal, came to talk Human Rights in Kashmir. She reminded us that in 2020 Amnesty’s India office was closed on spurious financial grounds following critical reports from them on India and on Kashmir. She described the increasing violation of human rights, the fears of increasing ‘Indianisation’ of Kashmir. Army checkpoints are increasing, with enforced flying of the Indian flag and increasing requirements of allegiance to India. Kashmir’s attractiveness is its richness in natural resources.
We sent greetings to Alaa on his birthday. Alaa abdel Fattah, a British national, is a writer and father who is unjustly imprisoned in Egypt. He has been an advocate for human rights in Egypt, and has been detained for his human rights work. He has spent most of the last 10 years in prison, most recently for ‘spreading fake news’. He went on hunger strike during COP27 climate meeting in Egypt last year in protest at his unjust imprisonment, cruel detention conditions and denial of consular visits.
There were two cases in the Amnesty Groups’ Newsletter we looked at: ‘the cost of green energy’ as typified by resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo’s cruel disregard of its own people who get in the way of the companies accessing the new mines. And secondly (another story about Indian exploitation) the story of Umar Khalid, a Muslim human rights activist who was active in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019; he’s now been in prison without trial for 3 years. He’s classified by Amnesty as an Individual at Risk – contact Cherry Bird for more information or actions – cherry.bird@amnesty.org.uk.
Two books for Media of the month, both critical accounts of our own Parliament: Code of Conduct by Chris Bryant and Politics on the Edge, a Memoir from Within by Rory Stuart.
There is no meeting in December but we are running a Write for Rights stall at St Mary Magdalene Church, Hammet Street, Taunton this Saturday 2 December from 10am-1.30pm, encouraging people to send 2023 Write for Rights cards. There’s a coffee shop – it’s warm and welcoming – hope you’ll join us there!
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 9 January 2024, at 7.30pm in the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton.
There’s a focus this month in the AI Groups’ Newsletter on ‘protecting the Protest in South Asia’ where the right to protest is increasingly under threat – in India, in Bangladesh, in Afghanistan. One particular case is highlighted: #FreeKhadij – Khadijatul Kubra (Khadija) (pictured) has been in detention under the Digital Security Act, for a year. Khadija is a 19 year-old university student charged for hosting a webinar where a guest made remarks that were critical of the Bangladesh government.’ Sign a petition here.
Letters of all sorts: Our lead on the Middle East and North Africa has written to the Tunisian authorities about the detention of former Justice Minister Noureddine Bhiri and about Jaouhalben Mbaruk, who is on hunger strike with five other detainees.
Our Death Penalty lead pointed us to an online petition for Rocky Myers of Alabama, held on death row for 27 years. He’s a black man against whom all the odds are stacked, down to a biased judge and incompetent legal representation.
Our lead on Zimbabwe and Afghanistan has been working at getting back-up from AIUK; there is information and access to petitions and actions. One source is Cherry Bird’s South Asia newsletter, with its shocking account of the deterioration in life today of women and girls in Afghanistan, drawn from Amnesty reports, and their urging of how international pressure can be exerted.
Various choices for Media of the Month: Burmese Days, a novel by George Orwell on the darker side of the British Raj; ‘Ultra-Processed People’ by Chris van Tulleken about the food industry, and ‘Painkiller’ on Netflix about how the Sacklers cynically created the US Opioid epidemic.
Our next meeting will be at 7.30pm on 14 November at the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place – hope to see you there! We hope Cherry Bird will join us to talk about Kashmir.
STOP PRESS Our letter about the Government’s demonising of refugees made it as the lead on the County Gazette’s letters page, 19 October.
We based the first part of our meeting on the Amnesty Group Report for August. This updates us on the activities of other Groups and alerts us to current actions within AIUK.
There is concern over El Salvador, where a State of Exception – in effect a state of emergency – has run since March. Over 60,000 people have been imprisoned and more than 150 have died in custody. There’s an online Amnesty petition demanding their government should end the state of exception and respect the human rights of all their citizens – this can be found on the AI website.
There was a debate earlier in the month in the House of Commons about British Nationals detained abroad – Alaa Abdel Fattah in Egypt, and Morad Tahbaz and Mehran Raoof in Iran – we are anxious to keep our MPs briefed and working on these cases.
Our plans for Write for Rights in December were discussed – we’ll probably aim again, if it’s possible, for St Mary Magdalene Church in Taunton.
Sue, our Middle East & North Africa lead, wrote a detailed letter (signed by all) protesting about the prolonged detention in inhumane conditions, and the 5 year imprisonment, after an unfair trial, of Egyptian Badr Mohamed. The reason? Involvement in an alleged protest in 2013 when he was 17. She also wrote to the Algerian authorities about Slimane Bouhafs, an Algerian activist kidnapped from Tunisia and brought back for trial in Algeria. He has been imprisoned for 3 years.
Alun re-capitulated the sorry story of the BK16 in India. The Minehead Group held a vigil for them earlier this month. Cherry Bird, Minehead Group and South Asia Co-ordinator, keeps us up to date with South Asia briefings.
Media of the Month – several suggestions here:
Bringing Down Goliath: How Good Law Can Topple the Powerful – Jolyon Maughan KC
Emergency State: How We Lost Our Freedoms in the Pandemic and Why it Matters – Adam Wagner
The Last Colony – Philippe Sands – about the British Indian Ocean Territories
Homelands – A Personal History of Europe – Timothy Garton Ash
Living Next Door to Putin – A two part piece on BBC1 by Katya Adler, Europe Editor.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 10 October, 7.30pm as usual at the Quaker Meeting House in Bath Place. Do join us there!
An unusual meeting: we were expecting an online talk by Carla Torres, the Country Coordinator for Zimbabwe, as we have adopted the case of Zimbabwean Makomborero Haruzivishe, an Amnesty Individual at Risk. At the last minute we learnt that Makomborero himself was also joining online. Fearful for his safety, he has recently left Zimbabwe and is living as a refugee in the UK.
He talked at length about his own experiences as a front line Human Rights activist and the state of affairs in Zimbabwe. Despite the 2017 coup ousting Mugabe, a military dictatorship is now in power, and corruption, killings and arrests are rife. Makamborero was elected to represent the National Union of Students; he was arrested and expelled from the University two weeks before graduating.
Speaking out against corruption, he organised country-wide protests but was abducted and imprisoned. He finally left the country during 2022.
What can we do? It looks a difficult task, but Carla recommended keeping up a series of smaller actions: writing to the local press, trying to involve MPs and Parliamentary Groups.
The next big event for the Taunton Group is the Pride March in Taunton on Saturday 22 July. Members of the group will take part and run a stall in Vivary Park.
We discussed a number of issues covered by the May Local Groups Newsletter, particularly Refugee Week, from 19-25 June. Its theme is Compassion, and the Museum of Somerset is running events to celebrate it on Saturday 24 June. A diary clash here, since the Minehead Group is celebrating its 21st birthday that day with a concert in St Andrew’s Church, Minehead at 3pm.
We signed a letter to the Moroccan authorities on behalf of Mohamed Ziane, imprisoned human rights lawyer and an ex-Minister. We signed cards of encouragement to more members of the BK16 group in India. We were encouraged to write Father’s Day cards to Alaa Abdel Fattah, still in prison in Egypt.
Our next meeting is on Tuesday 11 July at 7.30pm in the Friends Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton. Do join us to hear more about our work, and for lively discussions!
Makomborero Haruzivishe of Zimbabwe is a case the group has taken on
Prompted by the Local Groups Newsletter from AIUK, we discussed our recent ‘Football Welcomes Refugees’ action at the Taunton Town match on 25 April. It was felt to be a valuable consciousness raising action in unfamiliar territory, and one replicated nationally by over 100 AI Groups. Taunton got a mention and a picture in the Local Groups Update, which is a welcome pat on the back for everyone’s efforts.
The Update highlighted AI’s Israeli Apartheid campaign, which was well referenced in a recent well- attended House of Commons debate.
The Immigration Bill is another grave matter of concern, characterised by Amnesty as ‘inhumane, racist and divisive’. We were encouraged to write to our MPs and sign an online petition.
The Urgent Actions campaign is 50 years old this year; it has proved to be a very effective tool, with 500,000 volunteers working on it over the years.
Our India specialist had written a letter, for all to sign, to the Indian High Commissioner about the BK 16 group, and had prepared cards for all to send to some of those imprisoned. AI is planning a campaign on Kashmir, still only in the planning stage.
Encouraged by a recently joined member we have taken up the case of Makomborero Haruzivishe of Zimbabwe, a member of the opposition CCC Party, at odds with the governing Zanu-PF. A law student, and student leader, he has been jailed for ‘inciting violence’ aka peaceful protest.
The documentary film ‘Navalny’, about the poisoning of Alexei Navalny with novichok, was chosen as our media of the month.
Our next meeting is at 7.30pm on Tuesday 13 June at the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton. We’d love to see you there.
Our next monthly meeting will be on Tuesday 9th May at 7:30pm in The Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton – all welcome. If you’d like to join remotely via Teams then please email amnestytaunton@gmail.com and we’ll send you a link.
As part of the April Amnesty campaign, Football Welcomes Refugees, our Taunton group took a stall to Taunton Town Football Club’s game against Weymouth on Tuesday 25th April. We had an overwhelmingly positive response, people coming up to the stall to sympathise and offer support, taking leaflets and stickers. We also met Zealand Shannon, American ‘football influencer ‘ on YouTube, who came to find out more about Taunton FC. He was very sympathetic to our initiative and said he had donated a sum to Amnesty during the World Cup.
All in all a worthwhile venture and one we hope to repeat next year.
Amnesty International Taunton Local Group 