[Joanna Demarco / Amnesty International]
THREE men who prevented the return of 108 refugees to Libya in 2019 lost their appeal to dismiss the criminal charges against them at a court in Malta today.
Early on March 26 2019, Abdalla Bari, Amara Kromah and Abdul Kader escaped Libya — where they were held in slave-like conditions and tortured by human traffickers — on a rubber boat with 114 others. They hoped to reach safety in Europe. Six people died along the way.
Later that day, an oil tanker named El Hiblu found the rubber boat floating in international waters in the central Mediterranean and brought them aboard.
Former judge ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the details and controversy of Lucy Letby’s trial and appeal in the context of famous historical wrongful convictions that prove both the justice system and legal activists make errors
The heroism of the jury who defied prison and starvation conditions secured the absolute right of juries to deliver verdicts based on conscience — a convention which is now under attack, writes MAT COWARD