Family of J’can man saved from deportation calls for public inquiry

LONDON: The family of a young autistic man is demanding a public inquiry into his conviction and imprisonment, after a deportation order to Jamaica was scrapped.

Twenty-two year-old Osime Brown’s return to Jamaica was overturned by the Home Office last week Tuesday, following demonstrations in London and Glasgow.

The young man, is autistic, suffers with heart problems and post-traumatic stress syndrome, was sentenced to five years in prison, under joint enterprise laws. Brown was reportedly present during the theft of a mobile phone.

According to witnesses in Osime Brown’s trial in 2018 the young Jamaican tried to stop the youths robbing the victim.

Joan Martin, 54, Brown’s mum, spoke to The Weekly Gleaner, following the Home Office decision. She said: “The reversed decision shows the Government can respond in a just and dynamic way.

“However, I have always believed Osime’s imprisonment was a grave miscarriage of justice. The criminal trial took no proper account of his autism,” she said. “Additionally, the police singled him out, ignored CCTV evidence and when he could not process nor respond according to protocol during interviews; the police compounded his situation by adding charges of perverting the course of justice.

“I am in the process of organising an appeal against this injustice,” she added.

ONLINE PETITION

A petition on the Justice for Osime Brown site is calling for a public inquiry and has attracted 3,546 signatures, up to Monday, June 21. The petition which contributed to halting the deportation of Osime generated 427,000 signatures.

In October 2020 Osime was released from prison. While in confinement he experienced a heart attack and committed serious self-harm, which his mother believes was induced by anxiety caused by threats of deportation.

Brown left Jamaica at the age of four and has not returned to the Caribbean island since living in England. According to Joan Martin, when her son first heard news of the threatened deportation, he asked his mother what bus he could catch from Jamaica to see her in Dudley.

After the Home Office’s decision Martin thanked her campaigners for their support. She said: “Without you my family would have been lost and my son, Osime, would have been condemned to a very short and miserable life.

“But I realise that the fight is not over, because there are many Osimes in the United Kingdom, people who need to be listened to and believed. For those facing injustice I want them to persevere and never give up in the pursuit of justice.”

Labour MP, for Poplar and Limehouse, Apsana Begum said the Home Office should now review all deportation orders, especially those with learning difficulties and ethnic minorities.

Joint enterprise means that anyone complicit in a crime can be sentenced, even if they weren’t responsible. This law disproportionately affects young black men. According to the Centre for Crime and Justice studies 53.3 per cent of those imprisoned for crimes under Joint Enterprise are from Black and minority backgrounds, although consisting of 6.3 per cent of population in the UK.’

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We review all cases when new information is provided, and all decisions are made in accordance with the law.”