The Angry Exile: Mohammed Asha

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Sunday 18 January 2009

Mohammed Asha

So let's get this straight. This guy goes to Britain where he intends to work for the NHS as a neurosurgeon and, due to knowing a couple of people whose minds he was unable to read and who turned out to be a couple of religious nutcases, Asha is arrested, locked up, charged with funding terrorism because he lent them a few bob for (as far as he knew) rent, and finally tried. Now up to this point I kept an open mind and haven't got huge issues with what happened to Dr Asha. Maybe the evidence was a bit iffy, maybe there was enough to justify a trial... dunno to be honest as I was rather busy and didn't follow things as closely as I might have. But we all know what happened next - the jury cleared him of all charges and the judge had a pop at the police for one or two minor, trivial procedural matters (you know, things like grilling the poor bloke without his solicitor being there, nothing important), and he leaves court a free man. Well, actually a not-remotely-free man because the Home Office decided to deport Asha and to lock him up again while they fucked around with the paperwork.

Now I may have got facts slightly wrong here but my impression is that the Home Office had a kind of technically sound case for deportation. As someone living in a foreign country I'm aware that I must meet certain conditions and might be deported back to the north Atlantic shithole where I was born if I don't meet them. But let's be blunt about Dr Asha's situation - he wasn't able to meet his visa conditions because he was locked up in fucking Belmarsh. A just society would look at the root cause of why the visa conditions weren't met and act accordingly, say renew the visa and give the guy at least the same amount of time he spent behind bars to find another position in his field. Nobody can give him back the lost time, and since he apparently did know the terrorists who attacked Glasgow airport and had lent them money it could be argued that his arrest, imprisonment and trial was largely very, very bad luck. But having been cleared the slate should be wiped clean and Dr Asha allowed to get on with his life.

I'm glad to see that this now looks like it's going to happen.

A hearing of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission decided he was not a threat to national security and released him on bail after hearing secret information behind closed doors.
The panel decided that he did not need to be electronically tagged and ordered only that he should report to a police station in Birmingham once a week and that an unspecified sureity should be paid.
Mr Justice Mitting said: "I do not impose any of the conditions customary. We express the view that it is not in the public interest that Dr Asha should be prevented by immigration considerations from resuming work in the National Health Service."

I still find it distasteful that he's still being treated as a criminal by having to pay bail and report to a local police station each week, but as the article says he's not being tagged and isn't considered a threat. And obviously it's a hell of a lot better than being stuck in a detention centre - a prison in all but name. But the thing is, if he isn't a threat then why bail? Why weekly appearances at the cop shop? As far as I can see it's solely because of the Home Office's determination to kick the guy out.

Rupert Jones, for the Home Office, said Dr Asha was a threat to national security and there was a substantial risk he would abscond if bailed.

Wakey wakey. A court has cleared him and an immigration tribunal says he's no threat. If you've got evidence to say otherwise would it not have been a good idea to bring it up at his trial? Or charge him with something else? Failing that we're left with the conclusion that there's more or less fuck all and you're flushing the principle of presumed innocence down the fucking bog along with all the other freedoms that you government cunts find so fucking inconvenient to live with.

Oh, and just to show that the UK is not alone in having some world class shits have a look at the story of Australia's Dr Asha, a guy by the name of Dr Mohamed Haneef. If anything it's worse than what happened to Dr Asha. Funnily enough Dr Haneef seems less than keen on coming back to Oz to practise medicine. Can't imagine why. Actually to be serious I can't imagine why Dr Asha still wants to work in the UK after his treatment there, though if the Home Orifice is anything to go by there's no fucking shortage of brains that badly need fixing.