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Nottingham: why I have to speak out 1
26 June 2008

It is with regret that I feel compelled to write to counter the assertions made by Sir Colin Campbell, vice-chancellor of the University of Nottingham, about the arrest and subsequent release of the “Nottingham Two”: Rizwaan Sabir and Hicham Yezza (Letters, 19 June). I was Sabir’s MA supervisor and was questioned by the police for several hours in relation to his case. I am very far from the usual politics department “agitator”. I came to the sector after nine years as a “squaddie” in the Army, where I was used to keeping my head down and my mouth shut. In this case, I cannot keep my head down or my mouth shut. I believe an injustice has been done.

Sir Colin states that he authorised the release of “factually accurate statements”. When these first appeared in the university, and as I was a central player in the whole imbroglio, I took issue with them. I composed a four-page rebuttal to the university authorities stating why such statements contained elements that were, indeed, factually “inaccurate”. I received neither a reply to nor an acknowledgement of my letter.

Sir Colin also impugns my colleagues in the School of Politics who wrote an opinion article (“The Nottingham Two and the War on Terror: which of us will be next?”, 5 June). If Sir Colin had been fully au fait with the facts surrounding the issue, and if he had seen police statements in regard to the case, then I am sure he would not have said that my colleagues’ claims were “careless, entirely false and bear little relation to the facts”. A number of us who have been involved in, and affected by, this affair have been concerned that senior management will not discuss the issue with us. Since they are not open to discussion, and since they do not have all the details at their disposal, they have been prone to making maladroit statements. A brief meeting would have cleared up much of the misunderstanding. But instead of talking to those involved, Sir Colin has aired his views in public in the letters pages of Times Higher Education. I believe this to have been impolitic at this juncture.

I was an undergraduate at Nottingham. This is my university, I like it and I like working here. But I cannot sit idly by and do nothing while such inaccurate and unfair comments are made.

Rod Thornton, University of Nottingham.

Nottingham: why I have to speak out 2
26 June 2008

Sir Colin Campbell has not made the case for academic freedom reigning at the University of Nottingham. He needs to cite facts rather than relying on assertions. The answer sought remains: why waste police time and public money instead of investigating the matter internally? Furthermore, it is disingenuous for the vice-chancellor to suggest that the outstanding issues before the courts are related to the matter for which the police were called in. If Hicham Yezza’s visa papers were not in order it casts doubt on the adequacy of the university’s vetting procedures for job applications but it has nothing to do with the matter for which the police were called in.

Pat Brady, Chislehurst.

Freedom still reigns
19 June 2008

I was interested in your article “The Nottingham Two and the War on Terror: which of us will be next?” (5 June) but surprised by the interpretation of events that was offered.

Inevitably, any arrests of individuals on campus stimulate conjecture and speculation. For that reason, I authorised release of factually accurate statements of relevant events to the entire university community (including to the authors of the article) on 27 May and 3 June.

The second statement provided as full an account of events as was possible, given that some matters were (and still are) subject to legal process. Your readers can access the full statement entitled “Arrests on Campus” at https://my.nottingham.ac.uk/

No amount of scenario analysis of what might have been, aimed at reinterpreting events as an “academic freedom” issue (for whatever reason) can alter what actually happened. The incident was triggered by the discovery of an al-Qaeda training manual on the computer of an individual who was neither an academic member of staff nor a student and in a school where one would not expect to find such material being used for research purposes. We became concerned. The university had to make a risk assessment – no panic, no hysteria, just a straightforward risk assessment. Our responsibility to university students and staff, and our public duty to the wider community, led us to the conclusion that there needed to be an investigation. So our concerns were conveyed to the police as the appropriate body to investigate (no judgment was made by us). The matter has now been properly investigated and outstanding issues are before the courts of the land.

Much has been said on the matter of academic freedom. The University of Nottingham has always fully embraced this principle and continues to do so. Claims to the contrary in the Nottingham Two article are freely expressed and unconstrained. But they are careless, entirely false and bear little relation to the facts.

Sir Colin Campbell, Vice-chancellor, University of Nottingham.

Readers’ comments

Steve Clayton 19 June, 2008

Whilst Colin Campbell claims to have a direct line to all “factually accurate statements” in this case and accuses the three acadmics of lying – at least that is my interpretation of “entirely false and bear littel relation to the facts”. Having read the article, I am little puzzled as to what it is they have written that is false. It seems to be an opinion piece, not a description of events. Can Colin Campbell actually provide some evidence for his accusations?

Lee Jones 27 June, 2008

Sir Colin Campbell’s claim that the arrests of the ‘Nottingham Two’ is not a matter of academic freedom (letters, 19 June 2008) is not acceptable. Campbell essentially admits the charges laid at his door by three of his own academics – that Nottingham’s ‘risk assessment’ mentality led to two innocent people being wrongfully arrested and detained without anyone bothering to ask the tutors of the student concerned whether the possession of an Al Qaeda training manual (freely available online and in many bookstores) was legitimate for someone studying terrorism.

His tutors are, in fact, of the opinion that it was entirely legitimate, but according to a police notice issued to Rizwaan Sabir on his release on 20 May, ‘The University authorities have now made clear that possession of this material is not required for the purpose of your course of study nor do they consider it legitimate for you to possess it for research purposes’. Nottingham academics are still awaiting clarification as to what the University actually told the police, and under whose authority. They are also seeking clarification about concerns that police ‘stop and search’ powers were used illegally on campus. The police note threatened the possibility of ‘arrest and further detention’ if Mr Sabir looked at such material again. If it stands, can one imagine a clearer blow against the academic freedom of Mr Sabir, his fellow students, and anyone who wishes to conduct research on controversial subjects free from harassment and intimidation?

It is for these reasons that I and 34 fellow research students from the Universities of Oxford, London, Manchester, Westminster, and Kent, and the LSE, have written to Sir Colin Campbell to express our profound alarm at the way the ‘Nottingham Two’ have been mistreated by his administration and calling on him to give them support and to work with his own academics to ensure academic freedom is protected in the future.

Remarks by Lord Carlile, the government’s reviewer of terrorism legislation, that he would seek to restrict the online availability of terror-related material, raise the spectre of further limitations on academic freedom. Especially in the current political climate, this material must be subject to the most rigorous, critical academic scrutiny, not driven underground or glamourised by irrational and illiberal knee-jerk reactions.

As research students at the Universities of Oxford, London, Manchester, Kent, Westminster and of the London School of Economics, we have been gravely disturbed by the treatment of Rizwaan Sabir, a fellow student at your institution, and Hicham Yezza, one of your administrative employees. Following their wrongful arrest under anti-terrorism laws on 14 May and their subsequent release after six days in detention, Hicham Yezza faced a total of 31 days in detention in various immigration facilities, threatened with deportation, before being released a few days ago.

The response of your institution to their treatment is of deep concern to anyone who believes in academic freedom.

Rizwaan Sabir was arrested for doing no more than downloading an al-Qaeda training manual, freely available on US government websites, as part of his academic research, and Hicham Yezza for receiving the file for printing. Any concerns Nottingham had about this file could easily have been
cleared up by speaking to the individuals concerned, and their supervisors. Nottingham’s reaction was instead to immediately report them to the police, essentially dropping the two like hot potatoes, rather than to support the right of students to pursue the truth and conduct research free from harassment and intimidation.

Nottingham’s panicked response appeared to favour a culture of risk aversion over its central responsibility to engage in the harder task of defending academic freedom. This is all the more tragic given the current political and cultural climate, which demands both more research on terrorism, and the staunch defence of the freedoms necessary to undertake that research. Nottingham’s reaction is likely to have a chilling effect on your own research community and indeed wider academic life in the United Kingdom.

We urge Nottingham University to respond positively to the Letter from Concerned Employees submitted to you in late May, signed by dozens of Nottingham academics, which urges you to support Rizwaan Sabir and Hicham Yezza to the fullest extent possible, and to engage with faculty to devise measures to avoid future invasions into academic freedom and individual liberty in the future.

In closing, we would like to stress that our signatures were gathered hastily in a few days in order to convey our concerns as quickly as possible. In our view, they represent merely the tip of the iceberg of students’ alarm at these events.

Yours sincerely,

Lee Jones
Dept of Politics & International Relations
University Of Oxford

Co-Signatories

Alastair Fraser – Dept of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford
Alex Sutherland – Dept of Sociology, University of Oxford
Anneke Haddad – Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford
Ben Britton – Dept of Materials, University of Oxford
Caitlyn Schwartz – Faculty of English Language & Literature, University of Oxford
Chris Bickerton – Dept of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford
Christina Ward – Dept of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford
Eireann Cosgriff – Dept of Materials, University of Oxford
Elina Kilpi – Dept of Sociology, University of Oxford
Elton Barker – Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford
Evrim Altintas – Dept of Sociology, University of Oxford
Keith Stanski – Dept of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford
Maria Grasso – Dept of Sociology, University of Oxford
Mark Taylor – Dept of Sociology, University of Oxford
Martin A. Rust – Dept of Materials, University of Oxford
Michael Urban – Dept of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford
Nathan Sperber – Dept of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford
Oisin Suttle – Dept of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford
Scot M. Peterson – Dept of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford
Stefan Goetze – Dept of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford
Sundas Ali – Dept of Sociology, University of Oxford
Urvashi Aneja – Dept of Politics & International Relations, University of Oxford
Vidya Kumar – Faculty of Law, University of Oxford

Alex Hochuli – European Studies Department, Kings College London
Brian Hole – Institute of Archaeology, University College London
Christopher L. Pallas – Centre for Civil Society, London School of Economics
James Heartfield – Centre for Study of Democracy, University of Westminster
Joanne Kalogeras – Gender Institute, London School of Economics
Malcolm James – Sociology Department, London School of Economics
Marisa Minunno – School of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of London
Philip Cunliffe – War Studies Department, Kings College London
Robert Ford – Dept of Politics, University of Manchester
Ros Barber – Centre for Continuing Education, University of Sussex
Tiffany Jenkins – School of Social Sciences, University of Kent at Canterbury

Guy and Hich have been close friends for over ten years.

Magna Carta – Lyrics

For immediate release 16 June 2008

Following the cancellation order on his deportation, and after being detained for over 30 days, Hicham Yezza has been released on bail after the Home Office refused to grant him temporary release.

Hicham, a prominent political journal editor, writer and University member was arrested under anti-terror legislation for the possession of ‘radical material’ on May 14th. The document in question is widely used for research purposes and was downloaded from an official US government website. At the time of the arrest the document was being used as material for a PhD proposal (supervised by staff in the Department of Politics and International Relations) of a student friend who was also arrested.

In the wake of the arrest the Home Office attempted to deport Hicham: a move that elicited widespread condemnation. Alan Simpson MP said: “The basis of that removal is to try to justify the abuse of power under the Terrorism Act” (see website for text of speech). The deportation order was cancelled in the midst of protests and a concerted campaign for Hicham’s release, but he remained in detention for weeks in various immigration removal centres. The Home Office attempted to justify Hicham’s continued detention by claiming he had an ‘absence of close ties’ to the UK. This was despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, including hundreds of character references from friends and university colleagues, testifying to his excellent character and exceptional contributing to British society over the last 13 years.

Hicham’s arrest highlights the routine and inappropriate use of the terror laws in Britain. Despite the fact that the ‘radical material’ was immediately confirmed as research material by academic supervisors, both Hicham and Riswaan Sabir were held for 6 days. This is a pre-charge detention period that would be illegal in most EU countries.

This development comes in the wake of recent national debate surrounding the extension to 42 days pre-charge detention and at a time when the US Supreme Court reaffirms the writ of habeas corpus in relation terror suspects held in Guantanamo. Yet the UK Government continues to undermine this cornerstone of liberty and accelerates the erosion of fundamental civil liberties.

When asked for comment on his release, Hicham said: “Being detained for the past 31 days has been the most harrowing experience of my life. The support my campaign has received from thousands of friends and supporters – including MPs academics, artists and concerned citizens in Nottingham and beyond – has been nothing short of inspirational and has sustained me through this difficult time. I have spent almost half my life in Nottingham and throughout that time have done my utmost to be a productive and positive member of the student and local communities. I look forward to continuing my fight for justice and I hope sense will prevail.”

Campaign coordinator Musab Younis expressed his delight, commenting: “The incredible success of the campaign is testament to Hicham’s deep roots in the community and unique contribution as a well-known activist, academic, writer, and artist. The campaign will press ahead in its aim to secure Hicham’s right to stay in the UK. We confidently expect a swift and positive resolution to this case, in line with the values of justice and free speech that we expect our country to uphold.”

“We are delighted that Hicham Yezza has been granted immigration bail and has been released,” said David Smith, immigration specialist with Midlands law firm Cartwright King and who is representing Mr Yezza. “The judicial review will now continue and we hope that the case will proceed in an orderly fashion to its proper conclusion.”

[ENDS]

Press conferences will be scheduled shortly: see website for updates.

Contact the Campaign:
Phone: 07948590262 / 07505863957 / 07726466211
Email: staffandstudents@googlemail.com
Website: http://freehichamyezza.wordpress.com

Despite overwhelming evidence testifying to Hicham’s good character and strong links to the Nottingham student and local community, the Home Office has inexplicably and persistently refused to release Hicham while his case is ongoing. A hearing for bail will therefore take place in London on Monday 16 June. We are confident of a successful outcome, which will allow Hicham to be released from detention so he can defend himself properly.

The dance group Al Zaytouna made an impromptu performance outside the Nottingham Playhouse today (8 June 2008). They were highlighting the situation of fellow member Hicham Yezza who remains in an immigration detention centre at Dover awaiting a decision by the Home Office. His friends and supporters expressed dismay at the decision to keep him detained so far away. The Home Office decided that Mr Yezza had no friends in the UK to warrant keeping him near Nottingham, despite the fact that he has lived in the UK for over 13 years and the recent protest attended by over 500 including many colleagues and friends. Before Mr Yezza’s detention on May 14th he performed a lead role in the dance show Four Heartbeats One Rhythm in front of a sell-out audience in Nottingham Arts Theatre. His supporters ask for him to be moved to a detention centre closer to Nottingham to make visitations easier and they hope for a prompt decision by the Home Office on his status. His detention and near-deportation have been widely criticised both nationally and internationally as grossly unjust.