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.
Hello… G4S took over Jardine Securicor, the same company my husband and I worked for in Laos. Don't expect them to show too much corporate diligence. They prefer to put the corporate water between them and anything tainted, save their precious shareholdings. Forget about loyalty to staff.
Comment by Kay Danes — Thursday, July 1, 2010 @ 8:42 AM
RE: Former British officer Bill Shaw arrested in Afghanistan on corruption charges
Anthony Loyd
Dear Anthony,
I am a former employee of Lao Securicor, a subsidiary of Jardine Securicor (now G4S) and a similar thing happened to the manager in charge of the security operation in Laos where my husband and I were later to be employed.
The Minister of Interior’s personal secretary (Mr. Khamphe) wanted one of the Securicor company vehicles being imported from Thailand for his personal use, he wouldn’t allow the cars to be released to Securicor (G4S) when the Securicor manager refused him. Khamphe insisted on a payment of US$25,000. The Securicor manager refused to pay it. Then Khamphe said the import licences were no good. Eventually, the Securicor manager was run out of town. My husband was appointed to Managing Director after this incident. I was appointed administration manager.
We provided security to over 75 clients; World Bank, UN, IMF, ADB, foreign investors… Our relationship with our Joint Venture partners was good until on the 23 December 2000 they came to our headquarters and asked my husband to sign a false statement that would enable them to nationalise one of our client’s US$2 billion dollar investments (the largest sapphire concession in the world). My husband refused based on lack of evidence to support their claims. They abducted him. I alerted the Embassy after one of our staff alerted me to what had happened. The Embassy attempted to secure my husband’s release but he was being held in an undisclosed location. He had quite simply disappeared. The Embassy advised that they would evacuate me and our two small children from the country to safety. It didn’t quite work out that way.
With no grounds to hold us, our Government began pressuring the Lao authorities to release us. But the matter soon escalated, especially when the media found out that my husband was SAS, working on long service leave (with permission from the Australian Chief of Army).
To cut a long story short, we were centred in a political dispute that lasted almost a year. We endured mock executions, torture and ill treatment in a prison that housed scores of political prisoners.
As for our employers, Jardine Securicor, they agreed to engage a lawyer for us. He told us it was on the stipulation that he put corporate water between us and our employers. He said they insisted because they wished to protect their brand name. They were at the time going into Macau and didn’t want anything to taint their opportunity. Our lawyer made a deal with Securicor and said we could sort them out later. The main thing was to just get home to our children.
Thankfully our government knew that we were innocent and came to our aid. We returned home almost a year later. When we did, Jardine Securicor attempted to demand that my husband sign a global release that he would not tell the media of their position in the matter (the corporate water). My husband refused. Jardine Securicor withheld his superannuation entitlements and leave pay (US$25,000) in lieu of his compliance. We took legal action instead and it cost us $24,000 to get the $25,000 back and without signing any such global release. We also lost $350,000 of our own personal funds that we had to pay the Lao authorities in order to be released. No where along the line did Securicor offer to reimburse us, yet they submitted an insurance claim to Lloyds of London for a reimbursement of their costs under the hostage clause.
My husband returned to Special Forces with his reputation in tact but it was not for the support of Jardine Securicor that enabled us to hold our heads high, quite to the contrary.
For Bill Shaw’s sake, I sincerely hope the practices of old have changed along with the branding (name) change, particularly when it is the managers who take all the risks, make the hard decisions, and bear the consequences, in order to protect the company to which they serve.
Kind regards,
Kay
kaydanes.com
Comment by Kay Danes — Friday, July 2, 2010 @ 10:23 AM