Just News |
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) will be marching to the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria to demand the immediate release of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Mumia is a former member of the Black Panther party and he has spent over 40 years in jail, the majority of that time was spent on death row for the 1981 murder of Daniel Faulkner in Philadelphia. Mumia is a victim of political persecution, because he is a radical activist and journalist, who attracted the attention of the state security apparatus from the young age of 14.
NUMSA Hlanganani Regional Secretary Jerry Morulane said Mumia is America’s most famous political prisoner and there is evidence that his continued incarceration is unfair, and is a gross violation of human rights. “A report by Amnesty International, “protested the politicization of the trial” and noted the role that police abuse and corruption played in fabricated evidence and use of excessive force”.
Morulane added that Amnesty International concluded: “that the proceedings used to convict and sentence Mumia Abu-Jamal to death were in violation of minimum international standards that govern fair trial procedures and the use of the death penalty”.
On December 16, 2022, a hearing was held before Judge Lucretia Clemons of the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas on a Post-Conviction Relief Application. Mumia’s defence team filed for a new trial on the basis of new evidence of prosecutorial misconduct which may have had a negative impact on the outcome of the trial. Judge Clemons did not issue a decision that day, but she did order the prosecution to turn over up to 200 boxes of documents and materials in Abu-Jamal’s case to his defence team, with a final ruling on the matter expected by March 16. This is why organizations like NUMSA as well as and other progressive organisations are ramping up campaigns for Abu-Jamal’s release
