Overview

In January 2003, the British media splashed the news that anti-terror police had disrupted an Al-Qaeda cell, poised to unleash the deadly poison ricin on the capital. Police had reportedly found traces of ricin, as well as a panoply of bomb and poison-making equipment in the cell's 'factory of death' - a shabby flat in north London. 'This danger is present and real, and with us now' announced prime minister Tony Blair. But, when the 'Ricin plot' came to trial at the Old Bailey, a very different story emerged: there was no ricin and no sophisticated plot. Rarely has a legal case been so shamelessly distorted by government, media and security forces to push their own 'tough on terror' agendas. In this meticulously researched and compellingly written book, Lawrence Archer, the jury foreman at the trial, and journalist Fiona Bawdon, give the definitive story of the ricin plot, the trial and its aftermath.

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9780745329277

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Reviews

A refreshing insight into how the government and security services shamelessly seized on an alleged conspiracy to promote their war on terror . ... The plot never existed and no ricin was found. This is an inside story of a six month trial which provides valuable lessons, not least to budding members of MI5 and the police. -- Richard Norton-Taylor, Security Editor of the Guardian This is a praiseworthy example of a jury, better placed than anyone else to know what really goes on in our criminal justice system, exposing how injustice occurs when fear of terrorism distorts the objectivity of the prosecution process. -- Sir Geoffrey Bindman, civil liberties solicitor The innocent suspects in Archer's shocking but highly insightful book live in a world of deep suspicion. This world is prepared to utilise information extracted under torture, to inflate and conflate the threat of terrorism with immigration concerns and, to justify a war of occupation in response to a terrorist plot that only ever existed in the imagination of a government - a government that lied to its own people and forgot to admit it. It is left up to decent men like Lawrence Archer to help pick up the pieces of the lives shattered by this unjust process. -- Moazzam Begg, Director of Cageprisoners Gripping! I couldn't put it down. In telling it like it is, Lawrence Archer and Fiona Bawdon have provided some reparation to the innocent Algerians caught up in one of the UK's most controversial anti-terrorist trials. These Algerians are still fighting to this day to establish that they are not the 'enemy aliens' of popular myth, but impoverished exiles struggling to survive in a crushing, hostile world. -- Liz Fekete, author of A Suitable Enemy: Racism, Migration and Islamophobia in Europe (Pluto Press, 2009)

<p> A refreshing insight into how the government and security services shamelessly seized on an alleged conspiracy to promote their &#8220;war on terror&#8221;. It was even used to provide ammunition for the invasion of Iraq. The media was manipulated. The plot never existed and no ricin was found. This is an inside story of a six month trial which provides valuable lessons, not least to budding members of MI5 and the police. --Richard Norton-Taylor, Security Editor of the Guardian <p> This is the story of the plot that never was. It is a salutary tale of the way in which 9/11 scared&#160; our police and security establishment into crediting&#160; what at worst were the dangerous fantasies of a handful of muddle-headed refugees. On the basis of some recipes for poison&#160; scribbled on a piece of paper&#160; by one Kamel Bourgass, six other Algerians in addition to Bourgass were charged with conspiracy to murder. &#160; A lengthy trial involving a battery of&#160; QCs and huge cost

Author Information

Lawrence Archer is the telecoms engineer who was foreman of the jury at the 2005 Ricin trial, and has followed the lives of the acquitted defendants ever since, including attending their High Court and immigration appeal hearings. He is co-author of Ricin!: The Inside Story of the Terror Plot That Never Was (Pluto, 2010). Fiona Bawdon is a freelance journalist. She writes on criminal and civil justice issues for the national and specialist legal press. She is the co-author of Ricin!: The Inside Story of the Terror Plot That Never Was (Pluto, 2010). Michael Mansfield QC is an English barrister specialising in criminal defence work. He has often worked to overturn miscarriages of justice, including the wrongful imprisonment of both the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six. He represented one of the acquitted defendants in the Ricin trial. He is the co-author of Ricin!: The Inside Story of the Terror Plot That Never Was (Pluto, 2010).

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