freecraigalden

REPORTS

1. Extract of report prepared by Simon Trundle, Pastor of New Life Church following investigative visits to Planaltina in November/December 2002 and March 2003

• Craig Alden was arrested on July 1st 2002 and charged with abuse and neglect of children under his care at the Abrigo Warboys Orphanage in Planaltina Goias, Brazil.

• Craig Alden, a British Citizen, was convicted in early November and sentenced to 48 years imprisonment to be served in the local civil prison in Planaltina.

• Craig Alden did not have a defence submitted on his behalf because his original lawyer missed a statutory deadline that exists in Brazil for a defence statement to be lodged on behalf of a defendant. Vital defence evidence proving the charges to be false [defence witness statements, voluntary retraction of statements from alleged ‘victims’ and medical evidence] was ignored by the judge because the deadline for a defence was passed. This is clearly stated in the Judge’s summing up statement where it states that Craig’s lawyer [Dr Maria Christina dos Santos] did not attend all of the hearings, that she failed to submit a defence statement, that said lawyer did not remain in the courtroom during the hearings that she did attend and that said lawyer is now subject to investigation for her actions in this case. The judge concluded that the charges were ‘proven’ on the basis of the prosecution case alone.

• It should be noted that Craig has had a well documented dispute with the local government officials directly involved in his case [specifically the Prosecutor and Judge] in that he has resisted their plans to use the Abrigo as a holding centre for drug users and child prostitutes. Craig has consistently refused to accept such individuals because he felt that the children within the orphanage would have been put at risk.

The local Prosecutor in this case has recently sought to have the sentence increased beyond the current 48 years as she feels that it is insufficient punishment for the crimes in question. This action has been greeted with incredulity by ministers within the Federal Government in Brazil, leading one senior minister to state that he considers the charges to have been a ‘set up’ and that Craig was ‘lynched’ by the local Prosecutor and that the application to increase the sentence shows the arrogance of the Prosecutor.

2. Finding Of Visit To Brazil 4th – 7th December 2002
Following my initial investigation in early November, I returned to Brazil with Maureen Alden, mother of Craig Alden, on the 4th December 2002. The following text summarises the content of several meetings with Craig and also with senior British Embassy and Brazilian Government ministers.

2.1 British Embassy
On our arrival in Brazil we met with HMA Sir Roger Bone and Andrew Soper, Deputy Head of Mission.
The embassy had arranged meetings with senior officials at the Ministry of Justice and with Marcello Jardim, General Secretary for European Affairs.
Andrew Soper accompanied Maureen Alden and myself to the meetings with Marcello Jardim, Director General – European Affairs and Antonio De Freitas, Secretary National de Justica. Both of these individuals were very sympathetic to Maureen for her son’s plight and were concerned about the case.
Neither individual appeared able to intervene in the local State of Goiana where Craig is being held. The Federal Government in Brazil has limited influence in local state politics. Only the President of Brazil seems to be able to directly influence the State authorities in Brazil.
These two meetings, whilst reassuring in their nature, ultimately yielded little in terms of raising the profile of the case with the Superior Tribunal of Justice which ruled on the [17th December] not to nullify the case as requested in a habeas corpus prepared by Craig’s new lawyers.

2.2 Legal Update
Maureen Alden and I met with Craig’s new defence lawyers on Thursday 5th December and they outlined their activities on Craig’s behalf as follows:
They had submitted a habeas corpus writ with the Supreme court in Brasilia to have the case and charges against Craig nullified because of a perceived illegality in the proceedings where the Prosecutor acted both as investigator and prosecutor in this case. This habeas corpus will be considered during May 2003.
The lawyers have also prepared a further series of Habeas Corpus applications which they will now submit to the state court in Goiana to gain a re-trial which will allow full examination of the defence evidence.

2.3 In The Course Of Our Visit
Craig Elliot Alden
A series of video interviews were conducted in the course of my visit including an interview covertly filmed with Craig in his cell.
On visiting Craig on the morning of the 5th December 2002 we found him in a single cell adjacent to the entrance to the civil prison. His cell gate was fitted with a blanket to prevent him being viewed by other prisoners. The lighting conditions were very poor inside the cell although an electric light was provided however this is operated by joining two bare wires together and is a hazardous operation to undertake in the dark.
Craig was very distressed by the conditions that he was in. He was undoubtedly fearful for his life and had not left the cell for the previous 7 days because of fear of other prisoners. He is only ever offered exercise along with the remaining prisoners which is totally unacceptable because of the threats made on his life by some of the other inmates in this facility. Craig was provided with a thin mattress on the concrete floor and found it difficult to sleep. We subsequently enquired about why Craig did not have a bed and were told by the Delegado [chief of police] that if he needed a bed we should purchase one in town and have it delivered to him. We did purchase a bed and some additional clothing and personal hygiene items for Craig.
Our initial visit was limited to approximately 25 minutes and we had to apply for permission through the local court for additional visiting privileges on the Friday and Saturday. The official visiting hours are between 11.00 and 19.00 on Sunday. Additional daily visits are allowed by family members to bring food to prisoners. In civil jails in Brazil the prisoner receives a single meal at mid-day [typically comprising of rice and beans] and all other meals must either be provided by family members or purchased from local food outlets and delivered to the civil prison. Craig does not have family nearby to meet his needs and had only a limited supply of food in his cell on the day of our first visit. Craig had not eaten a hot meal in the previous 72 hours.
On the same day, Thursday 5th December, Craig was denied a statutory 2 hour pastoral visit with the local Pastor allegedly on instructions issued by the local judge [reason stated by guard] . The remainder of the prisoners can receive a two hour pastoral visit if they wish on Thursdays between 14.00 and 16.00. Despite the author being introduced as Craig's UK based pastor the visit was curtailed to 25 minutes and no further time was allowed for his mother who had travelled out from the UK to visit her son.
We subsequently applied for a 4 hour visiting period on the Friday and Saturday on compassionate ground but were only granted a 90 minute visit on Friday morning.
The author managed to bring a digital video camera into the prison cell on both the Thursday and Friday and during the visit undertook several interviews with Craig including a direct to camera appeal for assistance to prove his innocence.
In this first video interview he clearly outlines why he feels he is being falsely accused.
On our final visit to Craig we witnessed a visit from 5 Military Police from the original CIOPS facility where Craig was held following his arrest. These officers evidently knew and respected Craig through their visits to the Abrigo Warboys Orphanage and they were friendly to Craig [shaking his hand] and encouraged him to keep on fighting for his innocence.
Craig was in better spirits when we left on Sunday 8th December, however, since our visit we have learned that he has been threatened by a drunken guard and complaints have allegedly been made by other prisoners that he is getting special treatment. Craig is living in fear of his life and is unwilling therefore to take exercise with other prisoners in the prison yard. He is fearful that he will be killed to stop his fight against his imprisonment.

2.4 Conversations With Alleged Victims
Several children have already been dismissed from the Abrigo because of their unwillingness to give a statement against Craig. I have interviewed several of the alleged ‘victims’ live on camera and they have all expressed a belief that Craig has been set up and confirm that they have never been abused in any manner by Craig. These interviews are available for viewing by interested parties. A summary of the key points are listed below:
All four children [alleged victims] state that they were never abused in any manner by Craig but that the Prosecutor refused to accept their statements saying that she 'knew' that abuse had been taking place at the Abrigo. Several of these children wrote to the judge and local police retracting the ‘statement’ made in the presence of the Prosecutor but none of these letters are referred to in the sentencing statement because of the deadline having been passed for lodging defence evidence.
The children implicate a boy called [W], who coincidently was placed at the Abrigo Orphanage by orders of the local Judge and Prosecutor, with abusing several of the younger children at the home. They confirm on camera that Craig did not know that abuse was taking place but that when he was informed of the abuse that he took [W] to the local court and signed a charge sheet against him. These charges have never been investigated to date and [W] now works under the Prosecutor’s patronage at a local youth facility!
Unfortunately the use to which these interviews can be put to at present is limited as they could place the children at risk of harm if it were to be known that the children had accused the Prosecutor of forcing statements from them.