False Dichotomies

Published in Manchester’s Student Direct in November 2000

Satpal Ram is the victim of a legal system that has failed him, imprisoned for 14 years after killing a racist that attacked him. In a renewed campaign pushing for an appeal decision this week, Student Direct’s Alex Stein supported student protesters at a rally to Downing Street .

The first time I heard the name Satpal Ram was around three years ago, when I heard the song Free Satpal Ram by Asian Dub Foundation. His story, that is finally receiving recognition after 12 years of campaigning, is a tragic account of racial relations in Britain, a farcical miscarriage of justice, and the struggles of those who are trying to free him.

On November 16th 1986, Satpal Ram, a young man of Asian descent born and bred in Birmingham, and two friends visited a Bengali restaurant in the Lozells area of the city. Soon afterwards, a group of six white youths arrived. They had been drinking heavily and soon started to direct racial abuse at Satpal and other people in the restaurant. The abuse turned violent following a dispute about the music, during which the leader of the youths, Clarke Pearce, allegedly said: “We don’t want anymore of this fucking wog music.”

Clarke, with his five friends backing him up, smashed a glass on the table and stabbed Satpal twice in the face and wrist. By now, Satpal was up against a corner of the room with nowhere to go. He had a small knife which he used for his job, opening boxes in a warehouse. He used it to defend himself and fought back. With your back up against the wall, you can’t be turning the other cheek. Both men were taken to hospital. Satpal was treated for his wounds but Clarke refused medical treatment, according to Internet sources, pulled out his drips and died of blood loss in the operating theatre. Satpal went into hiding, fearing the consequences of killing a white man in a community deeply divided by racial tension. After a few days, believing that the facts of his attack would be addressed, he gave himself up to the police.

“I’ve never refuted that a man died as a result of my actions,” Satpal said in comments made to The Guardian in January. “But the circumstances have never been taken into consideration. I accept that loss of life is wrong, but if I hadn’t done what I did I would be dead now.” Satpal was referring to the ethnic tension which scarred Birmingham in the ’80s. The scales of justice are weighed down on one side Satpal Ram met his barrister, the late Douglas Draycott QC, only once for a 40-minute meeting before the trial. Without Satpal’s permission, his plea was changed from one of self-defence to provocation because Draycott had misread the pathologist’s report - failing to notice that only two of Pearce’s six wounds were sustained from Satpal’s blade - and concluded that self-defence was unsustainable. In the trial, Pearce’s friends portrayed Satpal’s attacker as the innocent victim. The judge said he would interpret for them on behalf of the jury, despite the fact that he could not understand Bengali. Satpal himself was denied the opportunity to speak in his own defence. Following a three-day trial, and after only 20 minutes of deliberations, an all-white jury found Satpal Ram guilty of murder, for which he was sentenced to 10 years.

“I put my faith in my lawyers,” Satpal told The Guardian. “They assured me they’d do everything they could but the trial was a complete farce. To be honest I didn’t know what was happening. I’d spent eight months on remand in inhumane conditions.”

Convicted of murder, but what’s never mentioned, self-defence was his only intention. In 1995 Satpal Ram came up for appeal. The Bengali-speaking waiters were not called to give evidence. The appeal judges again decided that Satpal Ram was guilty, based on the original trial evidence. Now the brother’s locked up on a life-time basis Satpal Ram’s treatment in prison, he claims, has been nothing short of shambolic. He has spent an unbelievable amount of time in segregation, and claims that he has often been attacked by prison officers. “Ghosting” has also been used. This is when an inmate is moved from prison to prison to stop him from building up his campaign for release. He has been moved over 60 times, an average of once every three or four months. Remarkably, after 14 years in prison, he still remains a category B prisoner, implying that he is a violent man who continues to pose a threat to society and an escape risk. This is disputed by his supporters who claim that he is being victimised in order to hide the brutality and racism within the prison system. On the 16th November, marking the 14th anniversary of the incident , a delegation of MPs, lawyers, musicians and other celebrities joined Satpal Ram’s family to hand in a letter and petition calling for Satpal’s immediate release. The Prime Minister’s office at 10 Downing Street agreed to meet the delegation. The petition was presented peacefully and drew support from over 50,000 people (including 200 Greater Manchester students) and according to one insider was supported by the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, MPs Keith Vaz, Chris Mullen, John McDonald and Helen Jackson, as well as the Asian Dub Foundation, Chumbawumba, Apache Indian, Massive Attack, and Primal Scream.

This was the result of a parole process that finally started in December 1999, following a rejuvenation of his campaign and a new solicitor. Satpal had been denied access to this process because he had not undertaken offending behaviour courses (a pre-requisite to parole). Satpal Ram’s new solicitor, Gareth Pierce (solicitor for the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four), has presented a dossier to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, arguing that his conviction was unsafe and unjust. The commission, if they agree with the lawyers, could refer Satpal’s case back to the Court of Appeal. This decision is scheduled for November 28th 2000.

The campaign for Satpal’s release has succeeded in influencing the Director General of the Prison Service, Martin Narey, to carry out personally a review of Satpal’s imprisonment. This review will primarily consider the disturbing factors related to his imprisonment and then his treatment within the Criminal Justice System.

Why is it that we do not know this man’s name as well as we do figures such as Stephen Lawrence or Winston Silcott? Perhaps it is because he cannot be martyred as a passive victim of racism, but can only be seen as an active resister. As Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh said: “the message to young black and Asian Britons is clear. You can be a dead Stephen Lawrence or a live Satpal Ram.” Either way, you are damned, in Stephen Lawrence’s case to death … or in Satpal Ram’s to imprisonment.

The work of ADF, and other bands such as Primal Scream and Chumbawamba, have finally begun to give Satpal Ram’s case the publicity is deserves, which is still scant reward for the 12 years that campaigners have been working for his release.

As students from a multi-cultural university, in a multi-cultural city, it is time that we took more of a stand in combating racism. Satpal Ram’s story, in a world scarred by racial division, should be imprinted upon our conscience, the story of a man (and this is the ultimate horror of his case) who found himself with his back against the wall and nowhere to turn. The story of a man who found himself in a situation that you or I could find ourselves in at any time. The story of a man who was viciously attacked because of his skin colour. When reading Primo Levi’s books on the Holocaust, I was always struck by the absence in them of any traditional literary devices; they read like a lab report. But that was the point. The horror of what Levi was describing was sufficiently conveyed by the facts, no great novelist’s skills would make any difference to that. The same is true in the case of Satpal Ram, a young man who has had his youth taken away from him because he refused to be a victim of racism. He defended himself, and has paid the price with 14 years in jail. The facts speak for themselves. This man’s release is long overdue.

Time to join in the fight-back, ‘cos enough is enough.