Free Siyanda - Camilla's fight to clear her daughter's name

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Free Siyanda - Camilla's fight to clear her daughter Siyanda's name

In today’s episode, our intrepid law student Narince Erkan from Durham University speaks to Camilla, Siyanda's mother, about the Free Siyanda campaign to clear her daughter's name in what she perceives to be a miscarriage of justice.

Camilla tells The View how two white males and one female racially abused and attacked her daughter. Siyanda tried to fight back, but when the police arrived on the scene, only Siyanda was arrested.

Siyanda alleged that she was verbally abused and attacked, and the other female claimed that Siyanda attacked her. However, the police never investigated Siyanda’s allegations against the racist white female.

Camilla claims that her daughter suffered lacerations, bruising, a black eye and a boot print on her face. The case went to the Court of Appeal, but it failed. However, Siyanda’s legal team established that she was attacked, and the court agreed that Siyanda was stamped on which they could identify her attacker by the boot print.

The Free Siyanda campaign helps people through its activism on social media by encouraging its supporters to write to their members of parliament (MsP). The racist institutions of the police, the CPS, the courts make it difficult to establish wrongdoing by the police but it was clear in fresh evidence presented to the Court of Appeal, that proved that the police were lying and hiding the truth and evidence in Siyanda’s case. In some cases, people are considered criminals while they are victims.

The injustice of her daughter’s case opened Camilla’s eyes to how the country is run and how justice is not meant to serve black or brown people. Racist assaults happen frequently and are covered up and Camilla has heard of other mothers in her position or worse. The Court of Appeal does not appear to want to help anyone racially abused but would rather you suffer instead of admitting to the failure of racist institutions. Camilla says that it has been a common experience in the wider community.

Camilla says, “The police have been given too much power.”

There needs to be a system that polices the police because there is no system in place that polices the police. Siyanda has gone through the complaint system and the Independent Office For Police Conduct (IOPC).

The police need to be held accountable to the community that it serves. The white jury had not experienced racial abuse so they would not understand Siyanda’s situation and might be biased; they did not believe her even with evidence—cases where racism is involved would benefit from having a mixed race jury.

Most jurors are white, and most serious cases of assault and other crimes in the area where the family was living are held at Swansea Crown Court where there is a low population of people of colour. Camilla's next step is to prepare for the Supreme Court and she is also looking to forge bonds with other organisations and create a united group for people going through hardships caused by the justice system that affect black and brown people.

You can support the campaign here and follow the campaign on Instagram here

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Rozdziały

1. Free Siyanda - Camilla's fight to clear her daughter's name (00:00:00)

2. Camilla gives us a background of Siyanda's experiences (00:01:33)

3. Appeals to the Court of Appeal (00:04:23)

4. Siyanda's release (00:06:26)

5. Creating a movement to combat miscarriages of justice (00:07:19)

6. How has the trauma affected Camilla and her family? (00:10:41)

7. What bigger changes would they like to see? (00:14:16)

8. Racism and bias in juries (00:16:08)

9. Next steps (00:18:46)

10. Building community for minoritised communities (00:20:14)

11. Support the campaign (00:20:53)