ACID BLAST - LIBERATORS/DDR/ACIDSTEVE (london)

hi people, something to finish off the weekend ;-)
a few things going on in london during the day over the weekend so this should round it off nicely, once again a night for our friend artur, and a chance to ave it of course!!
words by chris at the bottom as to the reason for the benefit..
http://www.accessallareas.org/flyers/4103_front.jpg

"THIS IS A MUCH NEEDED BENEFIT FOR ARTUR a good friend of ours, someone you may have met or seen out and about on the London party scene (he has been my driver for ages ‘cos he doesn’t drink, loves driving, and equally loves techno!!!), who has landed himself in jail in his homeland of Poland for pretty much no reason at all, which is why we are trying to raise some money to make his time away a bit more pleasant.

One day he was driving home from work and got stopped for a routine check by the Police who announced to his surprise that he was on an international wanted list and was immediately arrested. He phoned me to tell me to meet him at the magistrate’s court next morning with his passport as he was likely to be extradited straight away. I got there early and went into the court expecting to hear that in Artur’s past lay some terrible hidden secret, but to my surprise found out that all his crime consisted of was him signing a document to say that a mate’s dad was an employee of the car company he worked at at the time (this was back in Poland). He needed to say he had employment in order to buy a car. Of course this wasn’t the case, but Artur, being a good sort, obliged, and the bloke bought the car on H.P. but then defaulted on the payments a few months later. As a result Artur was taken in for questioning, explained everything, and although guilty of a minor fraud, was subsequently released without charge. This was back in 1995 I believe, 15 years ago. Several years later Artur moved to the U.K., got a legal work permit, returned to Poland to settle everything, and returned to U.K. to live. In the time he lived in Poland the authorities knew of his whereabouts, and his ex-wife and children continued to live in the same place after he left for the U.K. At no point was he or his wife contacted by anyone, so naturally he presumed the case was closed.

During the magistrates court hearing, we proceeded to find out that his case had been resurrected without his knowledge several years after his initial questioning, at a point when it was due to expire (from what we hear this has become common practice in Poland, where the ‘cases solved and successfully prosecuted’ figures are obviously being boosted to help certain people’s careers! ). They claim they attempted to contact him, but this is obviously untrue as they had his family’s address in Poland, and in his absence set about a court case and prosecuted him. Because he wasn’t there they sentenced him to a year in jail. This was around 2001, eventually they released an international arrest warrant in Jan 2010. And all this time Artur was completely unaware of any of it. Just to add, Artur has no criminal record in any country whatsoever!

The Judge granted bail and awaited to see what the Polish law courts said after Artur told them his side of things so he had a few weeks grace, in which time we found out that this has been happening to thousands of Poles here in the U.K. who have done mostly petty criminal offences like Artur’s that would merit a fine at worst. Because the British government foot the bill for the court cases, arrest, incarceration and extradition arrangements under EU law, and it costs the Polish government merely the price of a military plane home to guarantee a steady stream of ‘successful’ cases tried and solved, victims like Artur keep having their lives disrupted. We looked it up on the net, and apparently it has caused the British government to send an envoy requesting they stop using this excuse for extraditing people for what they termed ‘finable’ offences, but the Polish government refused to give way.
Meanwhile, Artur has had to arrange to put his life on hold (he could have fought the extradition at a huge cost but would have never been able to set foot in Europe without being threatened with arrest), has had to plead with his boss to keep his job for an indefinite period, and has had to store his possessions wherever he could, as he had to move out of his house. He went straight to an overcrowded maximum security prison in Warsaw instead of a low-risk open prison which he was supposed to be in (due to the Polish prison system being oversubscribed, surprise, surprise...wonder why that is??), where he was promptly beaten up by the prison guards. Luckily(?!) he’s now out of there and in an open prison in the north where he is on day release working for his keep, but he has had to pay for everything, including even his toilet paper, sharing a cell with 8 other prisoners, and most of his meagre wages go to the state. Obviously he is in dire need of some cash, which is why we are doing this for him.

Everyone playing at this knows Artur as a friend; he’s a wicked bloke and a true lover and diehard supporter of the techno scene here in London. Many’s the time he’s rushed home to collect decks or mixers when things have broken down, he’s been there going for it at virtually every party here in London over the last few years, so here’s our benefit for him in his time of need"