was at Harrow Crown Court on
August 15 just after noon when the
jury brought back the final verdicts in the Yarl's Wood trial. I heard the foreman announce that Lucky Jacobs, Kayode Abdul and georg Tuka were not guilty of violent disorder. I was relieved, but not jubilant.
Not jubilant because even though I hadn't worked it through, I expected the horror that was to follow. Three men who had been told they were innocent of any crime,, three men I had been talking with five minutes earlier, were rearrested and taken away by immigration police.
They were behind a glass screen, and defence solicitors were shouting that they shouldn't be taken away before they could get down to the cells.
This outrage was particularly worrying because when the charges had been dropped against Klodjan Gaba on June 5, he was deported to Albania within days. Fortunately this didn't happen to the other three, who wern released on bail 6 or 7 days later. But the fact that they were imprisoned at all is horrendous. Agron Kastrioti, and Thomas Kalu had also been acquitted earlier and had then been imprisoned by immigration for 2 days
The previous day Behar Limani had been found guilty of violent disorder. I was there then too - my heart in my mouth with anger and disbelief. I knew Behar; I'd talked with ... him about what happened the night of the fire. I didn't understand how anyone who had heard the evidence could possibly find him guilty of anything.
On August 13, Henry Momadou had been found not guilty of arson but guilty of violent disorder. Henry had been told he was to be released from Yarl's Wood seven days before the fire - he was just waiting to get out. Henry has a two year-old son and a partner. Why would he do something to jeopardise his position?
In sentencing Henry and Behar to four years imprisonment, Judge Roger Sanders identified Henry as the 'ring leader' of what happened that night.
The truth, as Henry explained to BBC's Radio 4 was that he and some of the others were probably arrested because they were well known as spokespeople for the detainees and liaised with the guards on their behalf.
All in all the jury deliberated for nearty 25 hours to reach these verdicts. Of the original sixteen charges against the eleven defendants that were tried, eight were dropped: three were aquitted, and two pleaded guilty. No one was found guilty of arson.
I wasn't in court for the whole case, though I did hear some of the evidence. I have read every page of meticulous notes from campaigners who were present each day. I have listened to many accounts of what happened on February 142002, the night that Yarl's Wood detention centre burnt.
La small window and were outraged. A large-scale
I am convinced that none of the defendants in this trial were guilty of any of the offences. While Naseem and Aliane pleaded guilty, in my view this was because of the weight of the system against them. Given the daily witch-hunts by the media and the government crackdown on asylum seekers, there was little chance that there could be a fair hearing for the defendants.
More than that I think that the real culprits for what happened that night were not in the dock. Two groups of people bear responsibility.
Group4 have rightly been given a pasting in the media. "Group4 have been a national laughing stock ever since they first blundered into the field of private custodial services".
"No one who has been present during this trial could fail to understand why, could they?" argued the prosecution on July 28.
Certainly I have no time for a private security company - especially one who coaches witnesses as they did. We don't need or want immigration detention centres anyway. If we must have prisons they should be run directly by the government. Group4 should not be given such contracts.
But the Home Office shouldn't be let off the hook either.
The Home Office were responsible for the deportation of many material witnesses to what really happened. For example 24 of the 26 witnesses for Lucky Jacobs were removed before the trial started, and 19 out of the 23 that Thomas Kalu wished to call.