Daily: How an “activist prosecutor” took on Britain’s broken justice system

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

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News, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

Content warning: Includes discussion of sexual violence and abuse. What is it like being an “activist prosecutor” in a legal system hampered by institutional prejudice and often indifference? Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal tells The Observer’s Nick Cohen about his memoir The Prosecutor: One Man’s Pursuit for Justice for the Voiceless and what it reveals about British justice. Why are marginalised young women so badly served by our justice system? How might COVID transform that system? And is “cultural sensitivity” a cover for failures on racial and class prejudice? “Police and prosecutors often use excuses to cover the fact that ‘This is really difficult, why are we bothering?’” “The idea of ‘working in the interests of justice’ got changed to ‘working in the interest of just us’.” “Our legal system is stuck in the past and isn’t updating with any speed.” “One police station has been sold to a pizza restaurant. And do you know who owns it? Organised crime.” Presented by Nick Cohen. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:12.1	My name is Nick Cohen, I'm a journalist on the observer and lots of other places, and I am delighted to welcome former prosecutor Nasir Afsal, who's written a memoir, very gripping memoir of how cases that the law was ignoring abuses of law was was ignoring honor, on the killings, child sex grooming, how he and his
1:38.3	fellow prosecutors bought them to the attention of the law and brought the perpetrators to justice.
1:43.4	Nasir, hello.
1:44.4	Hello Nick.
1:45.4	Welcome to the bunker.
1:46.8	I love this book for lots of reasons and the first reason is one you make early
1:52.0	on in the book is there are endless dramas about cops there are
1:56.8	endless dramas about defense lawyers the Atticus finches fighting fighting injustice, but there's hardly any drama or thought given to prosecutors
2:08.9	who bring bad people to justice.
	...

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