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DELEGATED LEGISLATION
Motion made, and Question put forthwith, pursuant to Standing Order No. 118(6) (Standing Committees on Delegated Legislation),
Resolved,
Mr. Bernard Jenkin (North Essex):
This petition is presented--[Interruption.]
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Michael J. Martin):
Order. There must be no conversations in the Chamber while an hon. Member is presenting a petition.
Mr. Jenkin:
The petition represents the views of the ordinary voters of Dedham Vale, who are threatened by the erection of telecommunications masts in their historic landscape--a landscape immortalised in the paintings of John Constable and deserving protection. Several hundred signatures are hereto attached:
That the draft Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers' Compensation) (Payment of Claims) Amendment Regulations 1997, which were laid before this House on 24th June, be approved.--[Mr. Kevin Hughes.]
Question agreed to.
That it is desirable that a Joint Committee of both Houses be appointed to review Parliamentary Privilege and to make recommendations thereon.--[Mr. Kevin Hughes.]
PETITIONS
10.18 pm
"Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House should urge the Secretary of State to ensure that DOE planning guidance for the protection of the natural heritage should take precedence over mobile telecommunications development; and further urges the Secretary of State for the Environment to be prepared to overturn the Inquiry Inspector's decision in respect of the above application, to ensure the protection of the historic landscape of Dedham Vale."
To lie upon the Table.
Ongar War Memorial Hospital
10.19 pm
Mr. Eric Pickles (Brentwood and Ongar): This petition concerns the fate of the Ongar War Memorial hospital in my constituency. The hospital was built entirely by the good people of Ongar as a permanent memorial and living tribute to those who died in the first world war. The petition states:
- The Petition of residents within the constituency of Brentwood and Ongar declare that they object to the proposals of the Essex and Herts community NHS trust to cease inpatient treatment within the Ongar War Memorial hospital, and the removal of all its beds.
The Petitioners therefore request that this House of Commons urge the Secretary of State for Health to review the proposals of the community trust.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.
James Miles and Paul Loseby
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. Kevin Hughes.]
10.20 pm
Mr. Keith Vaz (Leicester, East): I thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to raise in Parliament the important case of the detention in Venezuela of two young people from my constituency. I welcome and am grateful for this opportunity to speak on behalf of my constituents and their families, who are presently undergoing a great deal of suffering, anxiety and distress.
Anyone who doubts the significance of Adjournment debates should take heart from their effectiveness in prompting urgent action. Just five hours ago, my office was telephoned by the Foreign Office and given dramatic new information on the case, to which I shall refer shortly.
Some hon. Members will remember the media coverage of the detention of two men, James Miles, aged 18, of Hungerton boulevard, Leicester, and Paul Loseby, aged 20, of Greenwood road, Leicester, at Caracas airport on 4 November last year. That is how I first heard of the case. Somewhat alarmingly, Paul's mother, Mrs. Wendy Loseby, also heard of her son's arrest through a news bulletin rather than from official sources.
The young men were on their way back from a holiday when they were apprehended with 10 kg of cocaine strapped to their chests. James and Paul say that they were frightened and distraught. On international television they said that they were forced to carry the drugs after a man put a gun to their heads near a gate of the airport terminal. The two young men insist that they approached airport customs officers to tell them about the drugs and how they came to be on their person, but due to a misunderstanding resulting from the language barrier, they were arrested and have been detained ever since.
One can imagine the distress and trauma that the families of those young men have undergone during the past eight months. Steven and Georgina Miles and Graham and Wendy Loseby are respectable, ordinary, decent, hard-working people who have found themselves in a position totally beyond their comprehension. It is a nightmare for them. They have no access to large sums of money or experience of media attention. They were not prepared for, and never anticipated, facing a problem remotely of that proportion in this country, let alone on the other side of the world. The stress on the whole family arising from that unhappy situation cannot be quantified.
Today, in a dramatic and astonishing turn of events, my office received a call at 4 pm from Mr. Danny Woodyear in the Foreign Office, to be told that, on 2 July, James and Paul were sentenced to four years for possession of drugs, but not for trafficking.
On the face of it, that seems to be consistent with the version of events that they described. Neither the parents nor the Foreign Office were informed that that remarkable system of justice allowed for a sentence without a trial. We have not received confirmation that a trial took place with the defendants present.
I wonder what the Minister of State will make of those developments when he replies to the debate. We have been told that an appeal must be lodged, and that it will
take two months to progress the appeal. None of that information was communicated to the parents until this afternoon.
The Mileses must find money each week for food for the young men. Whereas other inmates have families who bring food by hand into the prison, as is the custom in Venezuela, the Mileses and the Losebys are not in a position to do that, and must rely on expensive and not always reliable alternatives.
As one can imagine, the strain on resources and on the families' physical and mental health is tremendous. In addition, there is the far greater expense of fees for lawyers dealing with the case. Worse than all that is the uncertainty, the not knowing, and the waiting, day in, day out, to hear whether there has been any progress or development in the case. Unlike the practice in our system of justice, Paul and James did not have to return to court. Bizarrely, their parents were not even told that they had to face a trial.
Over the past eight months, I have been involved in campaigning--first, to get as much information as possible, and secondly, to have those young people brought to this country, for their own sake and for the sake of their families. I pay tribute tonight to Mr. and Mrs. Miles and Mr. and Mrs. Loseby, who have worked in a united and disciplined way. I also pay tribute to Charlotte Seebohm, Steve Evison and Bishop Bill, all of whom have been involved in the campaign.
Under the previous Government, I secured meetings with the then Foreign Office Minister, the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox), and the Home Office Minister, the former Member for Leeds, North-East, to pursue various measures that might alleviate the young men's conditions and secure justice, and in particular on the issue of repatriation. Ironically, until the men are sentenced, they are not regarded as prisoners, and so cannot be repatriated.
I paid for Mr. Miles senior to visit Venezuela to see his son and his son's friend, to try to secure a lawyer and to meet officials there. A shocked Mr. Miles described his son's living conditions as a cell 30 ft by 30 ft--roughly the size of two sitting rooms--open to the air, with 73 people currently living in it. There is a hole in one corner for the toilet. Water is sometimes turned off, often for a week at a time.
Until Mr. Miles bought some sort of mattress, the young men were sleeping on a concrete floor. The place is infested with vermin and cockroaches. Paul and James are covered in flea and mosquito bites, have lice and have had scabies. There is a great deal of fighting in the cell. Paul and James have never had exposure to or experience of such hardships. One can scarcely imagine the physical and psychological effects of having to live in such an environment.
I have twice met the Venezuelan ambassador. On the second occasion, I was accompanied by both sets of parents. Much to our surprise, the ambassador arranged a telephone call to enable the parents to speak to the sons. The ambassador was extremely helpful, and seemed sympathetic to the idea of repatriation. However, further progress would require some general agreement of an internationally legally binding nature. In the case of Thailand, for example, such an agreement is already in place, and since 1991 has allowed for the repatriation to the United Kingdom of 30 prisoners, most of whom were involved in drugs-related offences.
Although the ambassador subsequently called on me at my office in the House, and although I do not doubt his sincerity or concern, that has not been reflected in the attitude, actions and deeds, or lack of them, by the legal system in Venezuela.
On 22 May 1997, I received answers from the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who stated that the British Government had approached the Venezuelan Government about accession to the Council of Europe convention on the transfer of sentenced persons, and are still awaiting the Venezuelans' reply.
Government policy is that, on humanitarian grounds, prisoners should be able to serve their sentences in their own countries. Venezuela is a highly unstable country, both politically and economically. In 1996, inflation was 103 per cent., and economic pressures of that magnitude have, in turn, led to a great deal of unrest. There have been several failed attempts at military coups in the past few years.
Venezuela's human rights record is also dubious--most notoriously in the prison and police services. In prisons, there are frequent instances of torture to obtain confessions, corruption and appalling overcrowding. Last year's Amnesty International report states:
James Miles and Paul Loseby are currently being held in a detention centre, La Vega, rather than a prison, thanks to initial pressure placed on the Venezuelan authorities. I record my gratitude, and that of their parents, that they were not transferred to La Planta. However, as I have already informed the House, the young men are still held in severely overcrowded conditions, with no separation of prisoners according to the severity of their alleged crimes or any other rational grounds. If the young men were to be transferred to the even worse prison conditions, I would seriously question their ability to survive such an ordeal.
May I say at this point that I--together with, I am sure, every hon. Member--categorically condemn any use of drugs, trafficking or dealing of any sort. Those responsible should be punished severely for their inexcusable activities and for the devastating effects that drugs have on people's lives and on society as a whole. I condemn wholeheartedly such practices in any circumstances for whatever reason, and agree, in principle, that sentences should be tough and that strong deterrent measures must be enforced worldwide.
Mr. and Mrs. Miles and Mr. and Mrs. Loseby also condemn drug dealing, but they categorically maintain that their sons are innocent victims in the real crime that has clearly been committed. These young men, who were on holiday in a foreign land far from home, were allegedly held at gunpoint and made to carry drugs against their will. However, as we have seen in numerous cases of miscarriage of justice, the relevant authorities consider that they have solved this case by arresting the two young men.
The real criminals not only go unpunished, but remain free to continue their evil work and to ruin more lives. Whatever the precise nature of James's and Paul's involvement, it is crystal clear that extremely sinister forces remain at large and in the shadows. As these two young men fester and rot in a detention centre, evil and wicked people continue their multi-billion dollar trafficking in death, amid the apparent indifference of self-satisfied authorities who appear to have selected their sacrificial victims.
What can the British Government do? I am delighted to see the Minister of State on the Front Bench this evening, as I know that he takes these matters very seriously. It is time to put an end to the weeks and months of waiting and not knowing because of the bureaucratic lethargy and inefficiency of the Venezuelan judicial system. It is time to act, and to fight for justice for the families of the young men.
Was their trial free and fair, with proper legal representation and translation? Now that the trial has apparently taken place--bizarre though the circumstances were--can the Government try to ensure that the young men are repatriated promptly to serve their time in a British gaol? Like his predecessors, I hope that the Minister will exert as much diplomatic pressure as possible on the Venezuelan authorities to ensure that the matter progresses.
Pressure for the judicial system to speed up its handling of this case will be extremely helpful. The waiting is adding to the distress of the families, not to mention the financial burden that they are ill equipped to shoulder. As I have said, conditions are bad, and the health of both young men and their families has been chronically affected.
The fact that James and Paul have apparently been tried and sentenced makes the repatriation agreement all the more urgent. We need pressure, pending the formalisation of an agreement, to allow the young people to be repatriated to serve their sentence in Britain. In the meantime, we need to see improved input from the consular section of the British embassy. It is not good enough to have to wait seven days to be told that the trial has taken place.
There is no way in which the family can continue to support the young men in the way that they have until now. I must tell the House that, if there is no tangible progress within the next three weeks, as soon as practicable after Parliament rises I shall go to Venezuela myself to see the young men, assess their conditions, meet the lawyers acting on their behalf, and exert whatever pressure I can on the relevant authorities in Caracas. I shall, of course, do so only after consulting my hon. Friend, and only if he and the parents feel that my visit will be helpful.
This country enjoys good relations with Venezuela. That fact alone should be an advantage in our attempt to get an acceptable solution to this problem. We should rely on our allies to act fairly with our citizens, as we most clearly do with theirs.
Surely it is against the principle of natural justice that two families should also be punished with their children. We recognise that British citizenship does not confer
immunity in terms of committing an offence overseas, and nor should it, but at the same time the Government have an absolute obligation to their citizens who face difficulties overseas. Whatever the cause or circumstances, one also feels that the terms and conditions of detention and punishment should be broadly commensurate with what we now generally hold to be minimal standards for the treatment of any human being, irrespective of his or her offence.
"Prison conditions continued to deteriorate and often amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Although the government acknowledged the lack of security for prison inmates, serious overcrowding and extremely poor sanitary conditions, they failed to act to reform the prison system."
A press report from November 1996 states that, since 1992, 360 prisoners have died in custody. In January 1994, 100 prisoners died during a riot and a fire at Sabaneta prion, Maracaibo, and, more recently, in October 1996, 30 prisoners were burnt to death at the notorious La Planta gaol in Caracas.
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