Look To The Stars News: Reprieve

Stephen Fry Appeals For Death Row Man's Life

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:30:00 +0000

British actor Stephen Fry is teaming with Reprieve to plead for the life of Akmal Shaikhis.

Akmal is a British national from London facing execution in China for smuggling drugs. He was arrested September 12, 2007, in Urumqi airport for allegedly carrying 4kg of heroin. Chinese authorities did not inform British Foreign and Commonwealth (FCO) of Akmal’s death sentence until several months after the ruling was made.

The Chinese court does not want to acknowledge that Akmal suffers from bipolar disorder. Reprieve has strong evidence that he is suffering from mental illness, and people who know him would agree. Fry suffers slightly from bipolar disorder as well and said, “Akmal is a very delusional figure,” and “has a history of extraordinary and perplexing behavior.”

Top Rockers Protest Against Music Torture At Guantanamo

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:00:00 +0000

A coalition of US and international musicians, including Trent Reznor, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Rise Against, Rosanne Cash, Billy Bragg and The Roots have announced they are joining the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo—a campaign led by retired Generals Robert Gard, John Johns, former member of Congress, Tom Andrews, and Vote Vets Chairman and Iraq War veteran, Jon Soltz.

The musicians have also launched a formal protest of the use of music used in conjunction with torture that took place at the prison and other facilities and announced they were supporting an effort seeking the declassification of all secret government records pertaining to how music was utilized as an interrogation device.

Massive Attack Asks For Reprieve From Music Torture

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:30:00 +0000

British band Massive Attack, comedian Bill Bailey, and Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine are calling for an end to the use of music as a form of torture at Guantánamo Bay and other facilities where suspects of the “war on terror” are being held.

Reprieve, a legal action charity founded by Clive Stafford Smith in 1999, is encouraging musicians to stand up and make powerful statements against the use of their music to torture and adopt clauses in their contracts to prevent this from happening. They believe music from some of today’s most popular artists is being blasted at prisoners for long periods of time, and that this combined with stress positions, water-boarding, sleep deprivation and beatings is intended to break prisoners psychologically.

“The fact that our music has been co-opted in this barbaric way is really disgusting,” Tom Morello told Spin Magazine. “If you’re at all familiar with ideological teachings of the band and its support for human rights, that’s really hard to stand.”