Boy, this one stinks and I feel for the friends and family of Bill Shaw. I don’t know enough about the case to make an accurate comment, but I do know the IPSSC and others have been involved with trying to get attention on this. In my Robert Langdon post, Bill was mentioned as well. If you would like to support Bill Shaw on Facebook, here is a link and let’s get the word out on this. -Matt
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Former RMP Officer Bill Shaw.
Family fears for Briton held in violent Afghan jail
Jerome Starkey
June 4, 2010
The family of a former British army officer jailed in Afghanistan on corruption charges have spoken of their fears for his safety after visiting him in one of the country’s most violent jails.
Bill Shaw, 52, was sentenced in April to two years in prison and fined $25,000 (£17,000) when a court found him guilty of trying to bribe an Afghan official. The former Royal Military Policeman was a manager of G4S, a security company that guards the British Embassy in Kabul.
Shaw was arrested with an Afghan colleague after handing over $25,000 for the release of two impounded vehicles. In court he said he thought it was a legitimate release fee, paid to a uniformed Afghan official. “He has been a victim of something set up,” said his daughter Lisa, 32, who travelled to Kabul with her mother Liz, 51, on Monday. Kimberley Motley, an American lawyer, is mounting Shaw’s appeal.
President Karzai has been repeatedly criticised for failing to reduce corruption within his Government. Although he referred to it as a cancer, he maintains that the West is just as guilty.
The country’s courts are notoriously opaque, justice can often be bought, and judges can be influenced by warlords, religious leaders or power brokers. In many parts of the country, Afghans turn to the Taleban who offer strict Islamic law, because it is preferable to the lengthy, expensive and often unfathomable state alternative. Shaw was convicted by a panel of three judges despite the prosecution’s failure to present witnesses.
When his family saw him for the first time, he was manacled and chained, dressed in a striped prison uniform and separated from them by reinforced glass. The maximum security jail, where he was held for nine weeks in solitary confinement for up to 22 hours a day, is paid for with British money to house drug lords. “It’s humiliating really for a man of his military background, someone held so highly in people’s opinions,” Ms Shaw said. Her father served 28 years in the Army, most recently in Iraq.
Mrs Shaw said that her husband tried to maintain a brave face, but broke down when he saw them. They said he had lost a lot of weight. On Tuesday Shaw was moved to Pul-e Charkhi prison on the outskirts of Kabul, where some of the country’s most violent inmates are housed along with suspected Taleban and al-Qaeda militants.
The prison was built during Afghanistan’s Soviet occupation and remains prone to riots, fires and mass hunger strikes. Inmates have seized control of entire wings. In 2007 Mr Karzai ordered more than a dozen inmates to be dragged outside and shot in a nearby field. “What struck me was the freedom the inmates seem to have,” said Shaw’s daughter, after visiting him in the new location. It was an improvement over the conditions at his earlier jail, she said, but they remained concerned for his safety.
“There’s only so much a human can take,” she said. “Especially one who is innocent. He is frightened, but he really appreciates the support he is getting from everybody back in the UK, here in Afghanistan and around the world.”
Story here.
[...] This is fantastic news and Bill can now call this his ‘independence day’. Excellent work by everyone in bringing [...]