Dear all,



Please see below for the latest information circulating this morning at the 

University of Nottingham about this issue, including the disturbing development 

that Hicham Yezza is now being threatened with deportation. Protest campaigns are 

being organised at the University and I will continue to keep you updated as and 

when I get the information.



Best wishes,



Sarah







From: Todorova Teodora Sent: 26 May 2008 14:58To: Roy Srila; Pero Davide; Zontini 

Elisabetta; Karner Christian; Stevenson Nick; O'Connell Davidson Julia; Potts 

Tracey; Shibli Adania; Levine Ken; Bromley Roger; Lafayette Sophie; McGuirk 

Bernard; Wright Colin; Curtis Neal; Kifukwe Gwamaka; Brown Melissa; Hawes Emily; 

Mason Sofia; Purser Aimie; Collinge Victoria; Wilson Gemma; Webb Abigail; Allen 

Kerry; Russell EleanorSubject: Read and Forward



Dear All,

 

Please find below the latest letter to be circulated by Dr Pupavac about the 

Demonstration in relation to defending academic freedom, as well as the latest 

press release by the Campaign to Stop the Deportation of Hicham Yezza. I am 

not going to go into any more detail regarding the circumstances of Rizwaan's 

and Hicham's arrests and their subsequent release, I believe there is enough 

information around to indisputably prove their innocence and integrity. 

 

However, what I do want to say is that the most pressing issue at the moment is not 

just the fact that academic freedom is under attack in the UK by University, Police 

and Government authorities. The arrests of both Hicham and Rizwaan, and the 

proposal to have Hich deported back to Algeria, despite the fact that he has been 

cleared of any crimes, have to do with a lot more than freedom of speech. A police 

officer felt perfectly in the right to proclaim publicly to a University Lecturer 

that this would never have happened if the two men were 'blonde, Swedish, PhD 

students' demonstrating clearly that the treatment of these two widely respected 

members of the University and Nottingham's community has been and continues to be 

informed by unashamed institutional racism and xenophobia. As a Cultural Studies 

student and as an immigration campaigner I strongly believe that it is imperative 

that we challenge the discourses that propagate and normalise racism, xenophobia 

and 'Otherisation' both on University Campus and in wider society.

 

Furthermore, as a personal acquaintance of Hich I would like to say a few 

things. Hich is much more than a mere PA, being a PA simply happens to be his 

employment position. Hich is one of the most inspirational and wonderful people you 

would ever have the privilege of meeting. He is widely respected as an individual, 

an active member of the University and of the wider community in 

Nottingham. His emphasis on the importance of communication and dialogue has 

touched and inspired many, including those who may disagree with him politically. 

 

I urge you to please take a stance against Hicham's deportation and to stand up 

against the racism and xenophobia that informs the present day attack on academic 

freedom.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Teodora Todorova   

 

 

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to 

perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really 

cooperating with it." 

Martin Luther King, Jr. 



 

Dear All



You may be aware of the arrest and release without charge under the terrorism 

legislation of one of our postgraduate students Rizwaan Sabir in the School of 

Politics and International Relations, and a clerical assistant at the University of 

Nottingham.

The arrests were prompted by a document, downloaded from an open source on the 

internet for our student’s dissertation on contemporary terrorism.  

I would like to explain to you why I will be taking part in a demonstration for 

academic and intellectual freedom next Wednesday afternoon on 28 May 2008 at 2.00 

pm outside the Hallward library, which will include a reading from the document 

which prompted the two arrests.

Academic freedom and intellectual freedom are of great concern to me as a lecturer 

and former student of the University of Nottingham. Indeed my interest in 

intellectual freedom was inspired by my undergraduate studies in Russian and Serbo-

Croatian here at Nottingham. I studied Russian writers who wrote passionately in 

defence of the intellectual freedom of ordinary citizens against official 

censorship. Today I teach and write on human rights and civil society. I am a 

strong believer that a flourishing democracy needs a flourishing civil society with 

citizens engaged in the political and social questions of their day. 

I believe a flourishing academic life involves much more than the curriculum and 

our individual academic discipline and formal research. Thus not only politics 

lecturers and students should be concerned with political questions, but also non-

politics academics and students, and non-academics. Thus not only sociologists and 

sociology students should be concerned with social questions, but also non-

sociologists and  non-sociology students. I am also a strong believer in affirming 

autodidacts or self-educated individuals and their right to explore the questions 

of the day. I believe academic i.e. intellectual freedom is not just for academics 

but everybody on campus, including non-academics and non-students. 

I am concerned that arrests under the terrorism legislation for a document widely 

available on open sources via official US web sites may deter research on terrorism 

and developing public understanding of terrorism. I am concerned that the arrests 

have implications for research into other controversial areas.  Narrowing 

intellectual freedom to authorised academics has implications beyond academia to 

questions of journalistic freedom and the position of professional journalists and 

citizen journalists or blogger journalists etc. To suggest that not any Tom, Dick 

or Harry, or Tom, Hich, or Harriet  should read, have or receive sensitive open 

source documents, material in the public domain, is an elitist view of public life 

and intellectual life. Such a view is antithetical to the democratic values and 

freedoms, which we are supposed to be defending in the war on terror. If we are 

serious about combating terrorism and defending democratic values and freedoms then 

we should have as many individuals as possible engaging and informing themselves of 

the problems of our world. 

My studies at the University of Nottingham in the 1980s helped foster my belief in 

intellectual freedom. I am concerned that the University in this case has been 

putting forward a narrow technical view of intellectual freedom, confined to 

academics or students within their formal discipline. I hope the University of 

Nottingham will continue to foster a belief in intellectual freedom for all - a 

belief that inspired me during my studies here two decades ago and continues to 

inspire me today.  

 Kind regards

Vanessa Pupavac

 

Dr Vanessa Pupavac

School of Politics and International Relations

University of Nottingham

 

 

 



For immediate use, 24/05/08 SATURDAY

 

University of Nottingham Detainee Innocent But Still Facing Deportation

 

Hicham Yezza, a popular, respected and valued former PhD student and

current employee of the University of Nottingham faces deportation to

Algeria on Sunday 1st June.  This follows his unjust arrest under the

Terrorism Act 2000 on Wednesday 14th May alongside Rizwaan Sabir and their release 

without charge six days later.

 

It has subsequently become clear that these arrests, which the police had

claimed related to so-called "radical materials" involved an Al Qaeda

manual downloaded by Sabir as part of his research into political Islam

and emailed to Yezza for printing because Sabir couldn't afford to get it

printed himself.

 

There has been a vocal response from lecturers and students. A petition is

being circulated, letters have been sent by academics across the world and

a demo is being planned for Wednesday the 28th May. This has clearly been

deeply embarrassing to a government currently advocating an expansion of

anti-terror powers.

 

On his release Hicham was re-arrested under immigration legislation and,

due to confusion over his visa documentation, charged with offences

relating to his immigration status. He sought legal advice and

representation over these matters whilst in custody. On Friday 23rd May,

he was suddenly served with a deportation notice and moved to an

immigration detention centre. The deportation is being urgently appealed.

 

Hicham has been resident in the U.K for 13 years, during which time he

has studied for both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Nottingham.

He is an active member of debating societies, a prominent member of an

arts and theatre group, and has written for, and edited, Ceasefire, the

Nottingham Student Peace Movement magazine for the last five years.

 

He is well known and popular on campus amongst the university community

and has established himself as a voracious reader and an authority on

literature and music. An application for British citizenship was underway,

and he had been planning to make his yearly trip to Wales for the Hay

Festival when he was suddenly arrested.

 

The authorities are clearly trying to circumvent the criminal justice

system and force Hicham out of the country. Normally they would have to

wait for criminal proceedings to finish, but here they have managed to

convince the prosecution to drop the charges in an attempt to remove him a

quick, covert manner. The desire for justice is clearly not the driving

force behind this, as Hicham was happy to stand trial and prove his

innocence.

 

Hicham had a large social network and many of his friends are mobilising

to prevent his deportation. Matthew Butcher, 20, a student at the University

of Nottingham and member of the 2008-9 Students Union Executive, said,

"This is an abhorrent abuse of due process, pursued by a government

currently seeking to expand anti-terror powers. Following the debacle of

the initial 'terror' arrests they now want to brush the whole affair under

the carpet by deporting Hicham."

 

Supporters have been able to talk with Hicham and he said, "The Home

Office operates with a Gestapo mentality. They have no respect for human

dignity and human life. They treat foreign nationals as disposable goods -

the recklessness and the cavalier approach they have belongs to a

totalitarian state. I thank everyone for their support - it's been

extremely heartening and humbling. I'm grateful to everyone who has come

to my aid and stood with me in solidarity, from students to Members of

Parliament. I think this really reflects the spirit of the generous,

inclusive Britain we know - and not the faceless, brutal, draconian

tactics of the Home Office."

 

 

[ENDS]

 

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