Fair Trials out of cash
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by Lee Khnber • Fair Trials Abroad (FTA), the organisation that helps drivers arrested in other countries, has had to stop providing assistance in the preparation of defences because it has run out of money.
The sharp increase in drivers being arrested for drugs offences has led to a huge jump in FTA's workload but no increase in income. It will go on providing lawyers' details to arrested drivers, but it is no longer able to fund barrister Gudrun Parasie and a team of caseworkers to fight unfair prosecutions here and abroad.
"We are in a funding crisis," says director Stephen Jakobi. "We've had 17 new cases since August."
Around 10 of the cases involve Dutchmen held in Britain and Morocco, where the remand systems mean they face many months in prison before their court cases are listed.
EU funding is likely to come through next March but the organisation needs £50,000 to keep running until then. It lost money in a theft and also suffered delays in its application for charitable status.
Even if FTA is made a charity at an appeal at the end of November, it is unlikely to be able to raise enough money to carry on much case work before March. This news comes as a bitter blow for drivers facing false drugs charges or long remand periods.
FTA successes include overturning a French prosecutor's wrongful claim that Stanley Allsop should not have been given bail because Britain does not have an extradition deal with France—it does.
It fought for Roy Clarke's release in 1995 after he spent two years in a Bayonne prison; secured the release of another British driver; and was instrumental in winning the release earlier this year of John Harrower.
Much of FTA's work involves bringing forward court cases for foreign drivers who face long remands with no access to their families.
Anyone interested in donating should send a cheque made payable to Fair Trials Abroad to: Stephen Jakobi, Fair Trials Abroad, Bench House, Ham Street, Richmond upon Thames, Surrey TW10 71IR.