Garry Mann - Portugal
September 04
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The attempt to impose a UK banning order on Gary in the Uxbridge Magistrate’s Court, instigated by the then Home Secretary David Blunkett, failed in September 2005. The District Judge ruled that Portuguese proceedings had been a total abuse of human rights and refused to grant the order.
Garry Mann, a 47-year-old fireman from Kent, went to Portugal during Euro 2004. One night, he was sitting with friends in a bar when a riot took place nearby. Hours later, Garry was arrested and accused of being the ringleader of the riot. Within 24 hours Garry had been tried, found guilty and sentenced to 2 years imprisonment.
The prison sentence is at present “suspended” pending an appeal.
The case is strikingly similar to that of Mark Forrester from Birmingham, arrested at the time of Euro 2000 in Belgium. Mark was also accused by a number of police officers of being the ringleader of riots. Official video evidence clearly showed that the Belgian police were giving a false account of what took place was suppressed. Eventually the conviction was quashed.
Fair Trial Issues
- Rights guaranteed by the ECHR, particularly the rights to instruct counsel and have adequate time to prepare a defence, were undermined by a piece of Portuguese legislation for specific offences arising from Euro 2004.
- Garry was only given 2 minutes to speak to the court appointed lawyer.
- There were repeated complaints from all defendants that the interpretation was substandard and inadequate. The interpreter was released in the middle of the case and a new one appointed. However instead of starting again, the case carried on where it left off, leaving Garry and the others unaware of a large part of the case against them.
Garry’s first appeal has already been rejected and his subsequent appeal to the Constitutional Court of Portugal was also dismissed.
At present there is an application before Uxbridge Magistrates Court for a 3 year banning order.