I popped into The High Court for a couple of hours. There are two judges sitting side by side and not a lot of other people in a very small court room. Abu Hamza is on a screen, looking much the same as he did last time I saw him in court. Occasionally you see him interact with a guard off screen coming into the room. In the corner of the screen is a smaller image, presumably of what Hamza can see of us.
I walked in to whoever was representing the US govt assuring that none of the evidence which would be used was gained from torture. He talked about evidence from an expert witness from the CIA who had seen Al Quiada training camps and evidence from Feroz Abbazi which would be discounted. He also made reference to James Ujama and Haroon Rashid Aswat. One of the judges said that any evidence about Al Quiada cases from these sort of areas was likely to have torture somewhere behind it.
A lot later the barrister defending Hamza made reference to where the Americans were saying that not all of the evidence they were going to use was presented here and so how could they say it wasn't obtained from torture? He also made reference to the "Supermax" prison system in the states. He said it was originally invented for violent gang members who were given "carrot and stick" opportunities for rehabilitation into the wider system. He said that since Sept 11th it had been used as a punishment system for serious Islamic prisoners such as the guy involved in the Kenyan embassy bombing etc.
I couldn't stay for the afternoon but may try and get there another day if I can.
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