Sunday, July 02, 2006

"Racism doesn't matter" say judges


Judges have ruled that victims of racism cannot defend themselves no matter how serious the abuse.

The bizarre Appeal Court judgement came in an today in the case of Farouq Kamara, who was jailed for 13 years last August after trying to protect his family against a racist attack.

The father-of-six and his family suffering six years of horrific race attacks in the Hampshire village of Stubbington, near Portsmouth.
Mr Kamara, 46, has always insisted that he was going to use the Rossi 22 calibre handgun to commit suicide after racist locals turned his life into a living hell.

But when village youths launched yet another violent attack on his wife and children last March the Manchester-born IT expert threatened to kill the yobs.
Yet Mr Kamara did not brandished the pistol in public, let alone pulled the trigger, and had never physically assaulted anyone.
His family suffering hundreds of race attacks since moving to the village and claim they were offered little protection from the police.

The devout Muslim pleaded guilty to charges of possessing an illegal firearm and ammunition, which was discovered under a tree, and he was sentenced to 13 years, with an order that he serve a minimum of five years.

Judge Hooton, sentencing him at Winchester Crown Court last August, did not made any reference to the campaign of racial abuse when sentencing his client. But today (29 June) at the Appeal Court, Lord Justice Scott Baker and Justice Mitting denied Mr Kamara permission to appeal against his sentence.

The judges rejected claims that the jail term was too harsh because the 'exceptional circumstances' of race attacks had not been taken into account.
Read the full article >>