Category: News

Matthew Groves and Parveen Judge recently acted for one of the defendants in the ‘Fred West house’ trafficking case.  Their client was acquitted following a successful submission of no case to answer.  The defendant had been accused of recruiting women from the Czech Republic into sham marriages and, ultimately, prostitution.

This traumatic case was reported in the Daily Mail and a News Blog.

Another defendant, Zdeno Sarissky, was also acquitted after a submission of no case to answer.  The trial continues in relation to the remaining defendants.

In 1971, the Chagossians were forcibly exiled from their homeland in a joint operation by the UK and the US, in order to make way for the US military base of Diego Garcia.  The Islands, which remain British territory, were leased to the US for fifty years, with the option of a twenty year extension, in return for a substantial subsidy on the US’s Polaris submarine nuclear deterrent; the deal was struck on condition that the entire archipelago was – in the words of contemporary official correspondence  – “fully sanitised” and “cleansed” of life.  Stripped of their British citizenship and awarded only £325 in compensation, the Chagossians were forcibly removed to Mauritius and the Seychelles.  Their fight to return to their homeland continues before the European Court of Human Rights.

The Secretary of State had proposed that the removal of Gwawr’s client was proportionate even though his mother had been granted UK citizenship under the 2002 concession awarded to first generation descendants of those who were deported from the Islands.

Gwawr was instructed by Oluwole Osibona, Head of the Immigration and Nationality Department at Freemans Solicitors.

Rajesh Rai has been granted permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal following oral submissions.  The novel case concerns conflicts in representation of a parent and minor child, where a parent is being deported as a foreign criminal.

Christa Fielden wins the right to take the case of Malik, involving an EU vs UK clash on immigration, to the Court of Appeal. The case centres on a Chinese National whose child was born in Ireland. The Home Office decided that the mother could stay in the UK to look after her child but was not allowed herself to work in the UK. The European Commission wrote to the UK government stating that this clashed with EU rules. Christa is delighted, after a hard-fought case, to gain permission for a full hearing before the Court of Appeal.

This traumatic case involved a man who was brutally tortured in Nigeria. After his torture, he was forced to swear an oath that he would not reveal to anybody his ill-treatment nor anything about the ritualistic and horrific murders that he had witnessed. He was marked with wounds to indicate that he had sworn such an oath. He initially did not reveal any of this in his asylum application as he was too traumatised. He also feared retribution for breaching the oath, particularly as one of the ritualistic murders that he was forced to watch was the killing of a man and his family who had broken a similar oath of silence.

His asylum claim was rejected at both First Tier and Upper Tribunals, both these courts having failed to take into account a wealth of medical and country evidence. The appeal before the Court of Appeal was subsequently rejected on the basis of the “second appeals test”. Christa Fielden will seek to challenge this decision before the ECtHR.

R (Sandhu) v Isleworth Crown Court

The High Court last week ruled that pit bull type dogs that are unable to live with their legal owners can instead live with a registered keeper.  The High Court found that this does not amount to making a gift or transfer of ownership.  The judgment means that Bullet and Cuddles, who have been in kennels for just under two years because their owner is serving a sentence of imprisonment, can now live with a registered keeper, saving them from certain destruction.

It is hoped that the ruling will save many dogs from unecessary destruction.

The Claimant was represented by Pamela Rose.

John Benson QC is leading Roger Daniells-Smith on a test case concerning the legal interpretation of the Obscene Publications Act. The debate centres on whether the logs of closed chatrooms, where all are willing participants in the exchange of pornographic materials of young children, are caught within the Act.

On 10th April 2012, the European Court of Human Rights gave judgment in the application of Gabrielyan v Armenia 8088/05. Rajesh Rai drafted the full submissions in this application on behalf of the Kurdish Human Rights Project.

The European Court of Human Rights found contraventions of Article 6(3) when read with Article 6(1) of The Convention. In particular, the Court made important observations in relation to the right to effective representation by State appointed lawyers, the right to cross examine witnesses and the legal position on absent witnesses. Details of the judgment can be found on www.echr.coe.int.

Two new arrivals at 1 MCB:

1. Julie Clarke joins Chambers as Practice Manager. With ten years’ senior management experience at Thomson Reuters and four years as MD in Ireland, Julie brings the latest ideas in terms of customer care and process. She hopes to meet many of you over the next year.

2. Mike Barrett joins as Clerking & Office Assistant and is already making an impression with his positive and helpful approach to helping Chambers run smoothly.

Members of 1 Mitre Court Buildings’ Criminal Team have been very busy recently, dealing with cases arising out of the August 2011 UK riots.

Caroline Gassman, Pamela Rose, Jemima Ivens, Parveen Judge, Satnam Bains, Tanya Murshed, Gwawr Thomas and Jacob Bindman have all been representing in various courts across London in these cases, which have been raising unusual and complex legal and practical issues.

For an example of a successful outcome for a defendant represented by Tanya Murshed, see here.

For other media coverage of the riots, see here and here.

For the Lord Chief Justice’s sentencing guidelines for riots cases, given in R v Blackshaw and Others [2011] EWCA Crim 2312, see here.

For further information on the sentences being handed down by the courts in riots cases, see here.

If you wish to instruct Chambers in a riot-related case, please contact our clerks on 020 7452 8900 or clerks@1mcb.com.

Rajesh Rai was invited by the Kurdish Human Rights Project to give a talk iin the European Parliament. The title of the talk was “Culture and linguistic rights in Education and mother tongue education in the Kurdish regions” and was given on the 11 October 2011.

The talk was based on a briefing paper of the same title dated July 2011, compiled by the KHRP, which made recommendations to Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq, civic society in Kurdish regions and international communities.

The talk dealt with international instruments which impose upon these states positive obligations in relation to protecting and promoting the mother tongue languages of Kurdish minorities, and states’ failures in protecting minority rights. This includes reservations by these states to important sections of the international instruments governing minority rights.

The talk was well attended and chaired by Jean Lambert MEP.

The report is available here.

The defence team for Jean Uwinkindi, a pastor currently held at the detention facility of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, today (8 September 2011) filed its appeal brief against a first-instance Referral Chamber’s unprecedented – and highly controversial – decision to transfer his case to the High Court in Rwanda. Iain Edwards was appointed to Mr Uwinkindi’s defence very shortly after his arrest in Uganda in June 2010. The client is charged with genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. The 39-page appeal brief advances 14 grounds of appeal and argues that Mr Uwinkindi would not receive a fair trial in Rwanda. The defence’s opposition to transfer is supported by international human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and the International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association. No human rights organisation supports transfer. A decision on the appeal is expected before the end of the year.