Brilliant start to the day when I spoke to Dr Mudawi this morning who had just been released from Gereif Prison in Sudan. He was apparently brought a piece of paper saying the Appeal Court had upheld his conviction (without any proper process) but they had decided he had been in prison long enough! He was in good spirits talking about the almost random and arbitrary injustice which had brought most of his cell-mates to languish in prison without even having seen a court. It was very good to hear Mudawi's voice and a good start to Robert Burns' birthday. As the great bard put it:

By Oppression's woes and pains, By your sons in servile chains, We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free!

(Scots Wha Hae) http://www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/424.htm