>>3317732 4203

Mau_Suit?

I'll guess it may have less to do with Chairman Mao, but she could have been browsing:

Mau Mau Lawsuit. If she was so interested in the Brits, maybe this would be part of it.

http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/the-mau-mau-litigation-justice-at-last/

It is rare for the British Government to apologise for state sponsored human rights abuses, particularly if they took place over 50 years ago. But in September 2015 the British High Commissioner to Kenya unveiled an unprecedented memorial in Nairobi to the victims of colonial era torture. The memorial was the final part of the settlement of the Mau Mau litigation which was brought by Leigh Day Solicitors and the Kenyan Human Rights Commission. It was the culmination of a lengthy legal battle which started in 2009 when Leigh Day launched five test cases on behalf of Kenyans who had been detained and brutally tortured by the British colonial administration during the Kenya Emergency (1952 – 1960).

(But I believe the meat of the suit is this, the missing archive that was found)

{Significantly, immediately prior to the legal hearings, the Government discovered a missing archive (the Hanslope archive) of thousands of highly sensitive documents which had been transported from Kenya prior to independence and which had been kept concealed ever since. These documents proved decisive.}

Two lengthy and complex legal hearings took place before Mr Justice McCombe (now Lord Justice McCombe). In a strongly worded judgment, the High Court held that there is clearly an arguable case against the British Government and that the claims are fit for trial:

“There is ample evidence even in the few papers that I have seen suggesting that there may have been systematic torture of detainees during the Emergency.” (Paragraph 125)…. “The materials evidencing the continuing abuses in the detention camps in subsequent years are substantial, as is the evidence of the knowledge of both governments that they were happening and of the failure to take effective action to stop them.” (Paragraph 128)

A year later, with regard to the limitation, the Claimants invited the Court to exercise it discretion to allow the claims to proceed on the grounds that the claims could not have been brought sooner given the lack of historical scholarship before 2005 which had traced the chain of knowledge and authorisation to the highest levels of Government. The Court ruled against the FCO a second time and held that a fair trial was possible given the voluminous documentation and the meticulous record keeping of the governments and military commanders.

At this point, the Government finally threw in the towel and agreed to pay £19.9million in damages to 5,228 claimants identified by Leigh Day, including legal costs. In addition, on 6 June 2013 William Hague (the then Foreign Secretary) made a statement to the House of Commons and stated that “[t]he British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place, and that they marred Kenya’s progress towards independence“. The final part of the settlement was the construction of a permanent memorial in Nairobi, which has just been unveiled.

The elderly Kenyan victims of British torture now, at last, have the recognition and justice they have sought for many years. For them this significance of this moment cannot be over emphasised.

>>3317732 4203

Mau_Suit?

I'll guess it may have less to do with Chairman Mao, but she could have been browsing:

Mau Mau Lawsuit. If she was so interested in the Brits, maybe this would be part of it.

http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/the-mau-mau-litigation-justice-at-last/

It is rare for the British Government to apologise for state sponsored human rights abuses, particularly if they took place over 50 years ago. But in September 2015 the British High Commissioner to Kenya unveiled an unprecedented memorial in Nairobi to the victims of colonial era torture. The memorial was the final part of the settlement of the Mau Mau litigation which was brought by Leigh Day Solicitors and the Kenyan Human Rights Commission. It was the culmination of a lengthy legal battle which started in 2009 when Leigh Day launched five test cases on behalf of Kenyans who had been detained and brutally tortured by the British colonial administration during the Kenya Emergency (1952 – 1960).

(But I believe the meat of the suit is this, the missing archive that was found)

{Significantly, immediately prior to the legal hearings, the Government discovered a missing archive (the Hanslope archive) of thousands of highly sensitive documents which had been transported from Kenya prior to independence and which had been kept concealed ever since. These documents proved decisive.}

Two lengthy and complex legal hearings took place before Mr Justice McCombe (now Lord Justice McCombe). In a strongly worded judgment, the High Court held that there is clearly an arguable case against the British Government and that the claims are fit for trial:

“There is ample evidence even in the few papers that I have seen suggesting that there may have been systematic torture of detainees during the Emergency.” (Paragraph 125)…. “The materials evidencing the continuing abuses in the detention camps in subsequent years are substantial, as is the evidence of the knowledge of both governments that they were happening and of the failure to take effective action to stop them.” (Paragraph 128)

A year later, with regard to the limitation, the Claimants invited the Court to exercise it discretion to allow the claims to proceed on the grounds that the claims could not have been brought sooner given the lack of historical scholarship before 2005 which had traced the chain of knowledge and authorisation to the highest levels of Government. The Court ruled against the FCO a second time and held that a fair trial was possible given the voluminous documentation and the meticulous record keeping of the governments and military commanders.

At this point, the Government finally threw in the towel and agreed to pay £19.9million in damages to 5,228 claimants identified by Leigh Day, including legal costs. In addition, on 6 June 2013 William Hague (the then Foreign Secretary) made a statement to the House of Commons and stated that “[t]he British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place, and that they marred Kenya’s progress towards independence“. The final part of the settlement was the construction of a permanent memorial in Nairobi, which has just been unveiled.

The elderly Kenyan victims of British torture now, at last, have the recognition and justice they have sought for many years. For them this significance of this moment cannot be over emphasised.