"Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was finally freed in 2022 following years of diplomatic negotiations and the British payment of a 400m debt to Iran, said Mr Lammy promised to help those arbitrarily detained overseas when he was foreign secretary. Now he is justice secretary, I hope he will take that commitment to ending arbitrary detention at home, she told The Independent ahead of a panel event on the jail terms at the Labour conference."
"The open-ended punishments which have been branded inhumane by the UN were abolished in 2012, but not retrospectively. Almost 2,500 people are still languishing in British jails without a release date. Victims of the scandal, whose tragic cases have been highlighted by The Independent, include: Leroy Douglas, who has served almost 20 years for robbing a mobile phone; Thomas White, 42, who set himself alight in his cell and has served 13 years for stealing a phone; and Abdullahi Suleman, 41, who is still inside 19 years after he was jailed for a laptop robbery."
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe called for new justice secretary David Lammy to end imprisonment for public protection (IPP) and to end arbitrary detention in Britain. IPP sentences were abolished in 2012 but not applied retrospectively, leaving almost 2,500 people detained without release dates. The UN branded the open-ended punishments inhumane. Cases include Leroy Douglas (almost 20 years for robbing a mobile phone), Thomas White (13 years after setting himself alight in his cell for stealing a phone), and Abdullahi Suleman (19 years for a laptop robbery). Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who spent almost six years detained in Iran, described the situation as fundamentally wrong and urged action at home.
Read at www.independent.co.uk
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