Justice for Craig Alden

Craig Alden (left), a British citizen currently imprisoned in Brazil, has committed himself to committing suicide by starvation.

This is a chap who really hasn't been treated with respect wherever he's gone.

Alden, a voluntary worker from Cambridgeshire who bothered to set up a orphanage for Brazilian street kids (a perfect example of foreigners doing the jobs natives won't do), was sentenced to 48 years imprisonment in 2002 after allegations of child abuse were made against him. The sentence was later reduced to 11 years on appeal, a reduction of scale which speaks volumes for the competence of the trial judge.

According to Sarah Maas, a spokeswoman for Fair Trials Abroad,

"It appears he had no chance to prepare his defence and his lawyer does not seem to have done much of a job to support his case".

This will be Alden's second hunger strike, having called off his first in December.

It seems that his real crime was to have crossed the Brazilian authorities; and the nature of the testimonials that he has received are eloquence itself.

Craig Alden - British citizen in Brazil engaged in charitable work, helping the most wretched of a wretched society. He gets involved in a dispute with the authorities, and ends up being imprisoned for 48 years.

Jean Charles de Menezes - a Brazilian citizen in Britain deliberately breaking its law for his own advantage, killed in a case of mistaken identity.

The Brazilian authorities refuse to permit Alden to serve his sentence in the UK, the British authorities offer money to De Menezes' survivors.

It's a funny old world, innit?