HC Deb 06 July 1938 vol 338 cc368-70
29. Mr. McGovern

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the consultations referred to by the then Secretary of State in answer to a question by the hon. Member for Hitchin (Sir A. Wilson) on 29th April, 1936, as being in progress between the Governor of British Somaliland and the Colonial Office in regard to the amendment of the situation subsisting under the Somaliland Order in Council, 1929, and the administration thereof by the local authorities, whereby accused persons were not permitted to be defended by a lawyer in any court in the Somaliland Protectorate, resulted in any amendment in the practice in the courts in the Somaliland Protectorate; and whether he will consider allowing a fresh trial to Abdi Farah, Ali Abdi, Isman Ali and Saliban Ahmed, who were sentenced to death in February, 1936, which sentence was subsequently commuted to imprisonment for 20 years, and who were refused permission to be represented by lawyers at their trial, and allowing them to be represented by lawyers at this fresh trial?

Mr. M. MacDonald

I would refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave on 25th May to a question by the hon. Member for Camberwell, North (Mr. Ammon).

Mr. McGovern

Is there any intention of granting a fresh trial to these men, in order to give them the opportunity of being represented in a proper way?

Mr. MacDonald

As I said in the answer to which I have referred the hon. Member, and of which I am sending him a copy, I have no power to order such a new trial.

Mr. McGovern

Cannot the right hon. Gentleman recommend that consideration should be given to it, seeing that these people feel that great injustice has been done owing to the fact that they were not properly represented at a proper trial? Can the right hon. Gentleman make representations on the matter?

Mr. MacDonald

I have really covered that point in the answer I have already given.

Mr. McGovern

Will the right hon. Gentleman answer my question: Is he prepared to make representations, if he has not already done so?

Mr. MacDonald

I have no power to interfere in the matter.

Lieut.-Commander Fletcher

Is any inquiry proceeding at the present moment into the legal procedure in Somaliland?

Mr. MacDonald

That inquiry has been completed, and certain recommendations for improving the position have been made. The answer to which I referred in my original answer sets out the new recommendations, which are being acted upon.