“Kangaroo courts” condemned by FTA
A leading human rights lawyer has expressed grave concerns about the treatment of England football fans in Portugal.
Over 40 English football fans have either been arrested and deported or agreed to leave Portugal after trouble in the bar district of Albufiera over the last week.
Some of the men returned home have protested their innocence of any involvement in disorder and have accused the Portuguese police of heavy handed behaviour.
The director of Fair Trials Abroad (FTA), Stephen Jakobi, said: “So called military police were photographed in brutal assaults against unarmed and defenceless civilians and a number of British citizens were placed before Kangaroo courts and convicted of serious offences without any proper chance of defending themselves.
“It is with consternation that one now reads of British Government and Police spokesmen supporting these actions without any criticism whatsoever of what clearly went on.”
Last week David Blunkett said he supported the quick actions of the Portuguese. Speaking to ITN, Mr Blunkett said: “The message is very clear.”
“You won’t only get immediate and rigorous sentencing from the Portuguese authorities you will get banning orders and action back here in Britain.”
Pat Morgan, the father of one of the men currently detained in Portugal, has written to the Home Secretary and the Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders calling for action.
In an open letter he said: “The truth is that the Home Secretary and his staff have sadly misanalysed the situation and are completely out of touch with the British public.”
“It would be more appropriate if, instead of colluding with Portuguese authorities and giving them every indication that you will tacitly support their excesses, you stood up for British citizens denied fair treatment and stopped tarring them all with the same brush in your statements to the media.”
The chief representative of the UK police in Portugal, David Swift, is calling on fans to stay away from the bar strip area of Albufeira, referring to it as the “principle source of tensions”.
