Mark Curtis case goes to U.N. commission
1990 1990-04Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 17 →
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16 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL1990 other organizations in Geneva. Leaders of the World Council of Churches, the International Association Against Torture, the Indian Treaty Council, and the delegate of the American Jurists Association either publicized or endorsed the case.
Application was made to Amnesty International to adopt Mark Curtis as a "Prisoner of Conscience." U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar assigned a Human Rights Officer to meet the delegation. She requested that all violations of Curtis' rights in prison be reported to her.
Harassment of Curtis continues Meanwhile back at Iowa State Men's Reformatory, where Curtis is incarcerated, he is forced to defend his rights and those of other prisoners. Authorities would not let him view a video tape, "The Frame-up of Mark Curtis." Only when his defense team pointed out it was essential to Curtis' appeal was he allowed to see the tape.
Curtis was also denied periodicals and other material in Spanish. A number of books ordered by prisoners in the Martin Luther King Organization were held up for six months.
Warden John A. Thalacker disputed an article in the Socialist Workers Party newspaper, The Militant. He denied allegations about conditions in the Reformatory. Curtis defended the articles in a letter to the warden.
This challenge to authority must have displeased the warden. Guards looked for the tiniest violations of prison rules. He was charged with spitting at a basketball game and penalized. Later Curtis was charged with gambling, for allegedly dropping a slip of paper marked "Super Bowl," and his privileges were taken away.
No doubt these harassments will ultimately be brought to the attention of the Centre for Human Rights. By its trip to Geneva, the Defense Committee has advanced the campaign to free Mark Curtis, the Mark Curtis American class-war prisoner.
Socialist Action readers are urged to write to: John A. Thalacker, Warden, Iowa State Men's Reformatory, Anamosa, IA, 52205 and demand that he 1) Immediately remove the gambling conviction from Curtis' record; and 2) Restore all of his rights and privileges, including the 2 good-conduct days taken away from him.