Need Help?
This page explains the ways in which Fair Trials International (FTI) can help defendants and their families in an emergency.
If you are facing a criminal investigation or charges outside your home country, or believe you have been a victim of a miscarriage of justice, we may be able to help you.
Simply print off the Online Client Questionnaire, complete it and send it to the address on the questionnaire by fax or post. As we need your signed assent to our involvement in your case, we cannot accept emailed copies unless your signature has been scanned in. Once we receive your completed questionnaire, we will then assess if and how we can help you.
We aim to provide a response to all requests within two weeks of receipt of a signed questionnaire, but we do receive many calls for help, which may affect how quickly we can answer you.
When considering which cases we can take on, we look at the severity of the alleged miscarriage of justice and the particular vulnerability of the defendant and make a careful consideration of how effective our intervention will be. If we are unable to take your case on, we will do our best to refer you to someone who can.
FTI CAN:
- Help you find an effective criminal defence lawyer
- Liaise with the lawyer on your behalf
- Give general advice on international law and procedures
- Monitor procedures and developments in your case
- Assist with post-trial legal processes (such as prisoner transfer and pardon applications)
FTI CANNOT:
- Find money for prisoners
- Pay for services for them
- Tackle welfare problems on prisoners' behalf.*
*For this you should contact your local Consul. You may also contact specialist prisoner-welfare agencies such as Prisoners Abroad (UK), or Españoles en el Mundo (Spain). Your Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also provide information.
For more detailed information about our work, read our About Us page.
REQUEST HELP
If you would like to request help from Fair Trials International, please download our questionnaire form (pdf format), fill it in, sign it, and send it to us by post (without this, we are unable to act on your behalf).