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Petition
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CHHOKAR FAMILY JUSTICE CAMPAIGN
PETITION TO THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT

On November 4^th 1998 Surjit Singh Chhokar was battered and then stabbed to death on a Lanarkshire street.  At two trials in March 1999, and November 2000, it was demonstrated beyond all doubt that three men were either present or attacked Surjit.  Yet no conviction for murder was secured.  The announcement by Jim Wallace and the Lord Advocate of two separate, private inquiries is an acknowledgement that a major miscarriage of justice has taken place and that the criminal justice system failed the Chhokar family.

However, the closed and in-house nature of these investigations could leave many of the central questions unanswered.  Why were the two trials held separately?  Why was any racial motive explicitly discounted by the police only hours after the murder and before a full investigation could be conducted?  Only a full and genuinely independent public inquiry can begin to answer these and many other questions and investigate the treatment of the victims (and families of victims) of racist violence by the criminal justice system.

We, the undersigned, call upon the Scottish Parliament to institute an independent public inquiry into the case of the murder of Surjit Singh Chhokar, to include lay advisers who have the confidence of the Chhokar family. We further request that the terms of reference include the wider questions of institutional racism and the treatment of victims by the police and the criminal justice system.

PLEASE RETURN PETITIONS TO Chhokar Family Justice Campaign, c/o Scottish Fire Brigades Union, 4^th Floor, 52 St. Enoch Square, Glasgow, G1 4AA.
Phone 07980 443807 Fax 0141 204 4575