Nightmare of forgotten man in Moroccan jail
_ G O D _
Nightmare of forgotten man in Moroccan jail
Briton John Packwood was a crew member
on a boat that, weeks later, was used by drugs
smugglers. Seven years on, he was arrested.
Jamie Doward investigates his alarming case
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1588100,00.html
Day by day, John Packwood's spirits ebb. Minute after minute, hour after hour he
waits. Locked up in a Moroccan jail after being extradited from Spain, he faces a
possible 30-year sentence after bizarre accusations that he was linked to a Colombian
drug cartel.
The 42-year-old marine engineer from Cowes on the Isle of Wight can take little
succour from the fact the case against him is flimsy and, some argue, non-existent.
Given what Packwood has been through over the last year he knows anything can happen.
He was arrested in Malaga last October under an international arrest warrant issued
by the Moroccan authorities. After a year in a Madrid jail, Packwood was extradited
to Morocco late last month. A Moroccan judge will decide on 24 October whether there
is a case to be brought against him, although his lawyers are petitioning to have
this brought forward to next week. In the interim Packwood waits in his own
purgatory.
'He's at an all-time low,' said his girlfriend, Jane Amestoy, speaking from the Isle
of Wight. 'It's the not knowing that's the absolute killer, it's difficult to deal
with. His mental state's not good. And having spent a year in a Spanish jail already,
it's affected him physically.
'His mum is elderly. He was her sole carer, visiting her three times a day. It's the
impact on her that really frightens him.'
A cursory glance at the undisputed facts surrounding Packwood's arrest suggests the
case against him is threadbare. He was part of a four-strong crew that delivered a
refitted former Royal Navy cutter, Cygnet, from Southampton to Morocco in April 1997.
Packwood was chosen for the voyage by his friend, Matthew Smith, the boat's skipper,
who subsequently had to pull out of the trip on the grounds of ill health and was
replaced by another man, Colin Bocquillon. Smith had signed up to the voyage after
answering an advert placed on the Crewseekers' website, a reputable online crew
agency. This fact is significant for reasons that will become clear.
The boat - renamed Duanas after its refit - was thoroughly checked before departure
and was again extensively searched by Moroccan police and customs when it was towed
into the port of Agadir in Morocco in April 1997 after engine failure. Shortly after
the cutter limped into the port its new owner, a man named Juan German, nicknamed
'Herman' by the English crew, paid them off and drove them to Casablanca airport so
they could fly back to the UK. It should have been the end of a brief adventure, one
captured in rolls of film the crew took as mementoes of their journey.
But, then, 10 weeks later, on 25 June 1997, the new crew of Duanas - four South
Americans - was caught by Moroccan customs officials trying to dispose of six tonnes
of cocaine over the boat's side when its engines failed for a second time. German
appears to have quietly left the country a couple of weeks before the bust.
Following their arrest, the South Americans - members of a Colombian gang - admitted
trying to dump the drugs and named names. They identified their bosses in Spain and
Cali in Colombia in the hope of reducing their sentences. They talked about how the
cartel set up fake commercial navigation companies so it could ship drugs across
Europe without suspicion.
But at no time did they make any suggestion they were linked to Packwood or the rest
of the British crew. Packwood was interviewed by Interpol in 1998 as part of a
wide-ranging investigation into the affair and quickly released, although he was
warned not to go to Morocco.
And then, more than six years later, on 15 October 2004, Packwood was arrested while
on holiday in Spain. 'We thought it was a storm in a tea cup. We never thought we
would end up having to provide evidence to support his case,' Ms Amestoy said.
The Spanish authorities had discovered Packwood - like the rest of the Duanas's
crew - was the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the Moroccan
authorities in 1997.
Packwood's supporters believe it may be no coincidence he was arrested just six
months after the Madrid bombings. 'Perhaps because of the bombings there was a
heightened sense of security. The others had all travelled to Spain after 1997 with
no problems. Perhaps John slipped into a net that was designed for terrorists,' Ms
Amestoy said.
His supporters also believe it may be significant he was imprisoned in Spain at a
time when the Spanish and Moroccan authorities were involved in a bitter extradition
battle over an al-Qaeda cell linked to the Madrid bombings and those a year earlier
in Casablanca. Amid the diplomatic stand off the countries' joint extradition process
ground to a halt. Did Spain offer Packwood to curry Moroccan favour?
Whatever the truth, Packwood offered to be interviewed by Moroccan police in Spain, a
sign, his supporters say, of his willingness to co-operate. The offer was not taken
up.
According to the campaign group Fair Trials Abroad (FTA), Packwood's case is a
'blatant abuse' of the international arrest warrants system as no attempt was made to
execute the warrant in the UK where a challenge could be made to its validity.
The group points out that Packwood's case has important international implications.
'If yacht delivery crews are to be sought out and imprisoned in connection with
events some 10 weeks after their deliveries, unless there is strong evidence of their
involvement, then no delivery crew is safe. This has serious commercial
implications,' the group warns.
The British Marine Federation (BMF) is equally concerned. 'This creates disincentive
for yachtsmen to visit the countries concerned and the consequent loss of benefit
both financially and otherwise for all concerned,' the federation says in a letter to
the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw.
As Ms Amestoy puts it, referring to Packwood's fellow crew back on the Isle of Wight:
'There are three young men here who are terrified this will now happen to them.'
Andrew Turner, the island's Conservative MP, has highlighted Packwood's plight with
the Foreign Office and the Moroccan ambassador to London.
'For someone to have been imprisoned for 12 months without knowing if any charge will
be brought against them is intolerable. The sooner this is sorted out the better,'
Turner said.
Packwood's lawyer, Jason McCue, of the human rights law firm H2O, is trying to visit
his client. But the UK has no agreement with Morocco that would allow British lawyers
into the country's prisons, making contact with Packwood difficult. The only silver
lining is that the Moroccan authorities have moved Packwood from the harsh
environment of Kenitra jail to the more 'comfortable' Hay Salam prison in Rabat.
'From the extradition papers submitted by the Moroccan authorities, there is simply
no case to answer,' McCue told The Observer. 'That in conjunction with our
substantial evidence dossier, containing evidence that has clearly not been provided
to the Moroccan court, should see him coming home to Cowes. As with any court, we
have to wait for the judge to make a ruling - we expect such a ruling not later than
24 October,' McCue added.
The question remains how Packwood could be implicated in a crime that occured ten
weeks after he had left Morocco. One part of the case against him is that he was an
'associate' of drug smugglers, that he and his fellow crew knowingly supplied a boat
to the Colombian cartel.
But this does not seem to be borne out by the facts: the men were hired by a
respected skipper, Matthew Smith, who had answered an advert placed on a reputable
website and who had no idea as to the true identity of his employers when he signed
up. Smith has written letters to the Moroccan authorities protesting Packwood's
innocence.
The second, more damning allegation, that the crew engaged in drug trafficking, may
simply result from confusion by the Moroccan authorities.
Buried in Packwood's Spanish extradition papers, copies of which have been seen by
The Observer, lies a striking paragraph: 'The boat named Duanas had, as its
assignment, the transport of six tonnes of cocaine to the south of Spain; that the
crew had to offload the narcotics, dumping them near the Moroccan coast because the
ship's [engine] broke down. The ship was under the command of an English crew until
it arrived in the port of Agadir ... the practical investigation into the case
determined the identity of the crew as [here it lists the full names of all four crew
members including Packwood] all English nationality, implicated and complicit in an
international drugs network.'
The troubling inference that can be drawn from this is clear: the Moroccan
authorities have confused the English crew with the four members of the Colombian
cartel who admitted dumping the drugs and are now doing long stretches in the
Moroccan penal system. Little wonder, given the explicit and seemingly irrefutable
link the document makes between Packwood and international drug smuggling, he was
arrested by the Spanish authorities.
If true, it might explain how Packwood's life has descended into the stuff of
nightmares, but it will offer small comfort to him as he awaits his fate in Morocco.
'We live this day by day. The only thing keeping us going is that we feel passionate
about our cause,' Ms Amestoy said. 'We've had to kick and shout every inch of the
way. It's a sad indictment that John's case hasn't been judged on its merits and has
required serious amounts of money and good lawyers.'
Ms Amestoy sounds bewildered as she says this. She has spent one Christmas without
her partner. She prays she won't be spending a second.
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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all COck-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.
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"The army that will defeat terrorism doesn't wear uniforms, or drive
Humvees, or calls in air-strikes. It doesn't have a high command, or
high security, or a high budget. The army that can defeat terrorism
does battle quietly, clearing minefields and vaccinating children. It
undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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