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Ministry of Justice in prisoner discrimination scandal

By John Hirst

Ministry of Justice in prisoner discrimination scandal

Millions of Iraqis have voted in the first election since 2005, with hardly any violence reported in the first few hours of the vote.

Normally, I would not bother to blog about an election in Iraq. However, you may have noticed that I have got this bug up my arse at the moment in relation to the General Election and a citizen's human right to vote, which includes convicted prisoners. Last night, whilst conducting research, in the Baghdad Observer, I discovered this snippet of news.

"Today was special voting day. Prisoners with a term of five years or less, hospital employees and security forces went to the polls on Wednesday in advance of Saturday's provincial elections in Iraq".

Why I think it is important is because under US and UK rule, prisoners serving 5 years or less have been given the human right to vote. Whereas in the UK, the government is plotting to give our prisoners serving 12 months or less the human right to vote, if at all.

Perhaps, the Ministry of Justice would like to make a public statement to justify this discrepancy and state why our convicted prisoners are being subjected to such blatant discrimination?

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on January 31, 2009 (boomark / email).