News from 2009

A further 24 people have been arrested in Turkey, in the course of raids against pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party

More than 80 members of the Peace and Democracy Party have been arrested in Turkey, including mayors and former members of parliament.

No to NATO demo in pictures

A victory for the people of Glasgow over “racism, fascism and the Scottish Defence League (SDL)”.

SACC has published a new briefing on the operation in Scotland of the Government's Prevent programme for tackling "violent extremism."

Demonstrators gathered outside BBC offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee to protest against the BBC's decision to invite Nick Griffin onto Question Time.

Activists in the Basque Country, Spain, have been arrested on he charge of being the political leadership of the banned Batasuna Party

We, the peace group acting on the historical initiative of Mr. Abdullah Ocalan, come to Turkey to contribute to a true basis for peace.

Metropolitan Police Service apologises for unlawful arrest

Glasgow City Council and Strathclyde Police have said that permission would not be granted to the Scottish Defence League to protest.

Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), has composed a 160 pages "road map" of what he believes will lead to a solution of the Kurdish question.

A federal appeals court rejected a lawsuit against CACI International that accused the firm's employees of taking part in the torture and abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

UK Tamil Diaspora launch a "continuous campaign" to free people illegally detained bt Sri Lanka

Stop the War calls on trade unions and other organisations to support a national demonstration against the war in Afghanistan

The Appeal Court hearing into the conviction and sentencing of Mohammed Atif Siddique finished yesterday, Thursday 3 July

Mohammed Atif Siddique, a young Scot controversially convicted of terrorism will today, Tuesday 30 June, be beginning his appeal at Scotland's High Court of Judiciary in Edinburgh.

The money spent on informers by Scotland's two largest police forces has soared in the last eight years, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act (Scotland)

The Crown Office have today confirmed that they will not be bringing charges against CACI, the US based company contracted to carry out the 2011 Scottish census who have been accused of torture, abuse and war crimes.

Analysis: Edinburgh's Procurator Fiscal has been given a file on CACI, the controversial company awaded a contract for the Scottish census

The fight against racism in Scotland is being undermined and discredited by a controversial counter-terrorism unit operating within the Scottish Government's Equalities Unit

The Law Lords ruling is welcome, but the struggle against secret evidence still has a long way to go.

A panel of nine Law Lords has ruled unanimously against the government's use of secret evidence

The fascist British National Party (BNP) has gained its first two seats in the European parliament.

SACC welcomes news that CACI's role is to be cut back, but re-affirms its demand for the contract with CACI to be cancelled.

Human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen walked free from jail in Raipur, India on 25 May 2009 after two years incarceration.

In the first dawn raid in almost a year, Fatou Felicite Gaye and her 4 year old son, Arouna, were snatched from their Sighthill home last week. Evidence is coming to light that raises disturbing questions about the case.

On Saturday 9th May, people from across the UK met in Longsight, Manchester and formed a national campaign called 'Justice for the North West 10.

Report and pictures - Tamils and others gathered outside the Scottish parliament to protest against the genocide of Tamils by the Srilanka Government.

SACC demands that Scottish ministers to use the powers available to them under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act to stop police interference in political activities.

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The Tamil protest against the ongoing civil war and crackdown on Tamil-held areas of Sri Lanka by Sri Lankan government forces entered its fourth continuous day today in Parliament Square, London.

50,000 households in the west of Edinburgh, Lewis and Harris should have received forms for the official census rehearsal in the last couple of weeks.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) condemns the latest government anti-terror proposals, entitled Contest 2, as a dangerous experiment in social engineering.

A Virginia federal court ruled Wednesday that four former Abu Ghraib detainees who were tortured and later released without charge can sue U.S. military contractor CACI International Inc. (NYSE: CAI), according to their U.S. legal team.

Journalist Kirsty Wark, TV presenter Rory Bremner, and radio presenter Grant Stott have highlighted the importance of the Scottish census ahead of its rehearsal in west Edinburgh, Lewis and Harris later this month. But a US court ruling against a company contracted to run the census has left the celebs on shaky ground.

Babar Ahmad has won £60,000 in damages today from the police over the brutality of the officers who arrested him.

Dr Bill Wilson, SNP MSP for the West of Scotland, announced today that he had just lodged a motion calling for the Rector of the University of Dundee, Craig Murray, to be allowed to present evidence of the UK Government’s involvement in torture to Westminster’s Joint Committee on Human Rights.

With just 12 days to go until the official rehearsal for the next Scottish Census, the exercise looks certain to be engulfed in controversy. Human rights campaigners are asking people to refuse to take part in the rehearsal in protest at the involvement of a controversial defence company that supplied interrogators to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

EIGHTEEN SCOTTISH volunteers have successfully delivered 25 tonnes of medicines to Gaza after a marathon 3,700-mile drive through Europe.

The Viva Palestina convoy enters Gaza - "We have broken the barriers, we have opened closed borders, we have defied the odds"

The Scottish convoy taking medical aid to Gaza entered the besieged territory via the Rafah crossing yesterday afternoon with four 7.5 ton trucks, four transit vans, an ambulance and a jeep.

The wife of a jailed Indian human rights activist is visiting Scotland as part of a UK speaking tour that she hopes will increase international pressure for his release.

365 days after Sri Lankan journalist J.S. Tissainayagam was detained under Anti-Terrorism legislation, ARTICLE 19 joins many people and organisations around the world calling for his immediate release.

A RACIST thug who repeatedly plunged a knife into a 14-year-old boy as he tried to flee has been locked up for four years and three months.

An Asian man was slashed with a weapon and racially abused by two thugs while he sat in his car just minutes before a teenage boy was attacked in the same street.

It's not everyday that you hear that the Home Secretary accused of 'conduct comprehensively unlawful' and has demonstrated 'an abuse of power'

Charity Commission vindicates Interpal, the British charity which provides humanitarian assistance to Palestinians

A STUDENT has told how he now fears leaving his home after being beaten and racially abused by a gang of weapon-wielding teens.

Over 350 people attended or visited the fantastic Stop the War Coalition Scotland Conference on Saturday. Palestine and the recent wave of student occupations in support of Gaza were a major theme of the Conference, with student activists attending from all over the country.

SACC says "Welcome Home" to Binyam Mohamed, who arrived at Northolt military base, UK this afternoon after more than four years internment at Guantanamo Bay.

Head of the Tamil Tigers appeals for a political solution for the Tamil people.

Wednesday's decision by the Law Lords to allow the deportation of Abu Qatada to Jordan, where he faces "trial" on charges based on evidence obtained under torture, has been hailed as a "landmark ruling against terrorism suspects." In fact it is a landmark ruling against human rights.

The three men from the Burnley section of the Viva Palestina convoy who were held on Friday 13th on the M65, alongside the Blackburn Six, have now been released. George Galloway has condemned the actions of Lancashire police.

An investigation by the Law Society is understood to be about to conclude that Aamer Anwar did not breach the solicitors' Code of Conduct when he spoke out after the conviction of his client Atif Siddique.

Seven men from Blackburn set off today to join the Viva Palestina aid convoy to Gaza. These men were wrongly arrested on Friday evening

The Observer reveals that The Foreign Office solicited the letter from the US State Department that forced British judges to block the disclosure of CIA files documenting the torture of Binyam Mohamed. SACC says Miliban must resign.

Yahya al Faifi, a brave trade unionist, is facing deportation back to a tyranny in Saudi Arabia that regularly tortures and "disappears" dissidents

Binyam Mohamed is dying. He has been held without trial at Guantanamo for four years after confessing - under torture, he says - that he was an al-Qaeda terrorist.

Kent Police have arrested a man in Sheffield under the Serious Crime Act 2007 in relation to the recent Indymedia server seizure. H

A US Federal Appeals Court was yesterday asked to consider whether torture victims abused in Abu Ghraib prison can bring legal proceedings against defence contractor CACI International Inc. The news follows the announcement by the Scottish Government last month that it has re-structured the contract for the next Scottish Census to prevent CACI - whose UK subsidiary is contracted to run the census - from obtaining access to personal data about Sottish households.

Attorneys for torture victims abused in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere in Iraq asked the federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to affirm a lower court ruling letting the lawsuit proceed to trial against CACI International Inc.

Students at Strathclyde University have ended a 24 hour occupation after wining a series of promises from the University administration

Sri Lanka has been given a licence to kill, says British Tamils Forum

Moazzam Begg, Omar Deghayes and Chris Arendt speak at public meetings in Scotland

Over 100 supporters of Scottish Stop the War Coalition and Palestinian groups occupied the BBC headquarters in Glasgow on Sunday after the BBC's refusal to show DEC Gaza aid appeal

Azzam Tamimi condemns the part played by Egypt and Jordan in Israel's attack on Gaza, but says that the worldwide protests against the attack had been an inspiration to the people of Gaza

SACC gives a cautious welcome to orders signed by President Obama today to close Guantanamo Bay but sats Obama could do better

Demonstrators gathered at the Hanover Street branch of Lloyds TSB in Edinburgh on Saturday 17th January 2009 to protest at the banks attack on the charity Interpal

SACC says that says that nothing less than a move to immediately charge the Guantanamo prisoners or release them will rescue President-elect Barack Obama from confusion and illegality.

One of the last British residents to be held at Guantanamo Bay has been told by the US government to prepare for release, according to declassified documents seen by The Independent.

Dundee police close Gaza stall and harass activists

A group of Palestinian campaigners accused of disrupting a performance by Israeli musicians in Edinburgh will stand trial in March, a court decided.

The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national

Sunday 11 January was the seventh anniversary of the rendition of the first prisoners to Guantánamo Bay. SACC says: "It's time for Guantánamo Bay and the rest of George Bush's torture archipelago to be shut down. Britain should be demanding the immediate return of all the British residents still held there.""

In a speech from Damascus, Khaled Meshaal, Hamas' political leader spoke on the events arising from Israel's ongoing 15-day raid on the Gaza Strip

Pictures of the Scotland-wide Demonstration in Edinburgh 10 January 2009