Dear Brian,

I know many of you are concerned about the recent review of British policy on supporting clemency

pleas. I thought it would be helpful to write to you setting out the position on this, and on the Prisoner

Transfer Agreement.

Last year the Foreign and Commonwealth Office conducted a general review of policy on when we

support clemency pleas. It was decided not to change the policy. The primary concern was to ensure that

the policy should be based on clear and objective criteria. This is best achieved by the current guidelines-

only supporting clemency please when there are compelling compassionate grounds to do so, such as

when a prisoner is terminally ill, or when a close relative is terminally ill and their death will leave

children or elderly relatives with no-one to care for them.

We looked very carefully at the policy of the Australian Government. Australia supports prisoner's

clemency pleas when they have served a sentence comparable to the one they might have received if they

had committed the offence in Australia. Australian policy relies on the Government knowing what a

"standard" sentence would be for any given crime. This would not be possible in the UK. The only

sentencing guidelines the Home Office produces are those describing maximum sentences. British courts

are allowed wide discretion, based on the circumstances of each crime, deciding what sentence to give

within the maximum allowed. So we could not calculate consistent, fair and accurate "British" sentences

for prisoners sentenced overseas.

If you decide to take advantage of the Prisoner Transfer Agreement that we have with Thailand you can

serve the remainder of your sentence in a British prison. However this does not mean that the UK is able

to change your sentence when you transfer home. Any review of your judgement and sentence is a matter

for His Majesty the King and his advisers. I should add that it is still possible to appeal for clemency and

benefit from amnesties even after transfer to the UK.

Once you return to the UK we are bound by the terms of our bilateral Prisoner Transfer Agreement to

continue to enforce the Thai sentence. As you are probably aware our parole system is not as flexible as

those of other countries. For example, the United States has a parole system that allows a prisoner s

sentence to be reviewed after transfer to bring it into line with domestic sentencing guidelines. UK law

does not allow us to make special parole arrangements for transferred prisoners. Returning prisoners are

treated in exactly the same way as prisoners sentenced in the UK and are eligible for release on parole

after serving half their sentences.

If there is anything else you would like to know or would like further clarification on, please do not

hesitate to let me or my colleagues know. We will do our best to help. If there are any changes or

developments that affect you, we will let you know.

Brian Kelly .

H M Consul

As you can imagine our hope for a cut was high, only for the birthday to come and go on the 5^th December to find all drug cases (and all 8 of us donkeys) with no amnesty. We were devastated, as no amnesties look to be coming for years to come. Only later that month at our embassies Christmas visit hopes were born again when the consul for Thailand told us that the Foreign Office were having talks with the Home Office headbangers about why 6 out of 8 of us in Bangkwang have refused to take the treaty back to H M Prison to review clemency for support on a Royal Pardon and if possible to review our sentences when back in Parkhurst, as do America, Canada, Oz and France, along with all other European's, with transfer treaties RE "Same time same crime" at this site.

As you can see from the two letters concerning this, one from the Embassy in Bangkok, the other from Tony Blair's office we are gutted to be told that they have decided to basically "leave us to rot", or come back to Parkhurst to rot where it will cost the taxpayer £500.00 per week, for a term of 45 years, 6 months for the ones with life sentence. This after doing 8 years out here as a Thai life sentence is forever, but on transfer is calculated as 99 years and it's 1/2 of your remaining sentence when back in taxpayer land.

All this and month after month we watch each other foreigners do 8 years - transfer, then send us postcards after 3 months stateside in prison on parole. It is not only the Americans either as most if not all 27 treaty countries give parole at the worst, maximum sentence for the same crime in home country. We find our situation sickening and hopeless, with us serving decades more than the rest of the foreigners, with any hope of fitting back into society, a dream.

When we were told last year of the review, we were told that they would also discuss that we might follow the Australian system of support for clemency of a Royal Pardon. They put your individual case in front of a judge back home and he will see what sentence you would get comparable with what sentence you would receive if you had committed that crime in Australia, and fully support a pardon at that time. At the moment we only get support if terminally ill, so we get our hopes up on this fact that the British government might use this system, but the Embassy letter states that we can forget about this as well.

Now we are left in a state of hopelessness and as two of the eight are in their sixties they are probably facing death in prison for them, and possibly for all or most of us.

What do we do from here?

Brian Mounsey, Bangkwang.