# 53 Letter # 22 to Mr Phillip Hammond, UK Foreign Secretary

Mr Phillip Hammond

Foreign Secretary

Parliamentary House of Commons

London SW1A                                                                                   

1^st Dec. 2014

Dear Mr Hammond

Mr Fletcher’s latest emails to Sue Bennett and the FCO read:

Dear Sue Bennett; fco

As I am due to die within the next two weeks, i request you confirm you accept Mr James Ricketson as my legal power of attorney. If you dispute this I would be grateful of an explanation of the nature of your objection. Obviously time is of the essence.

And:

Furthermore Sue would you please provide me with a legal will format  that the FCO will accept as valid. It is vital to me to get this correctly formatted and accepted in writing from the fco.

Regards

Sue Bennett has clearly been instructed by your office to do all she can to prevent Mr Fletcher (and myself) from being supplied with the documents he is entitled to (and has asked for) in accordance with FOI legislation. Mr Fletcher’s emails are intended to elicit from the FCO precisely what legal document is required by the FCO that will enable me to pursue these FOI requests after Mr Fletcher’s death.

As time is of the essence, can you please instruct FCO staff to supply Mr Fletcher and myself with answers to his questions without undue delay.

I do appreciate that the facts of Mr Fletcher’s case are of as little interest to you, Mr Hammond, as they are to the judges on the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. Whereas they have benefited financially from their decision to refuse Mr Fletcher the trial to which he is entitled, you and the FCO have benefited (to date at least!) from being placed under no court (or media) scrutiny regarding the destruction of Mr Fletcher’s passport.

In the event that there may be, on your part, some last minute Road to Damascus change of heart, consider the following message I received today from the woman who has been my point of contact with Yang Dany and her mother, Sekun:

"Hi Jame, i am so sorry to hear about David. I am sad for him. I dont know any news about Dany. Matt just contacted me today to ask about Dany. And they want to meet Sokun. I gave Sokun mumber to Matt already. I asked mother about Dany. And she said Dany is now happy to live with her husband in China. And Sokun look seem doesnt want to talk or to answer my questions. I think she doesnt care if David will dead in jail."

Some weeks before the trial that never happened on 20^th Nov, Yang Dany told me that she had been instructed by Actions Pour les Enfants (APLE) not to attend court. APLE is, as you know, an NGO that receives funding from the British government.

Now that Yang Dany has disappeared into China, obvious questions arise. At least obvious to me!

- How did Yang Dany acquire a husband in China?

- How did Yang Dany pay for a Cambodian passport to get to China?

- How was it that Yang Dany was able to acquire a passport at such lightning speed?

- Or, if Yang Dany had no passport to enter China, has she been trafficked?

- And if Yang Dany has been trafficked, by whom?

- Will anyone from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office be making enquiries in this regard?

- Will the FCO make any attempt at all to find out from the Cambodian Department of Immigration if Yang Dany has been issued with a valid Cambodian passport? Or from the Chinese Department of Immigration if she has entered China legslly?

As David Fletcher moves closer and close to death various friends are pleading with him not to die.

From a friend to David:

“Just keep fighting a little bit longer, mate...this is exactly what they want...if this is truly the path fate has set you on then at least don't give your enemies the satisfaction of knowing that they broke you...death comes for everyone anyway...I just don't know what to say, mate...whatever happens I just wanna say that you are probably the toughest and strongest person I've ever met in my life. I don't care what anyone says about you, David. It was an honor to have done time with you buddy...

From David to his friend:

“Thanks. They have not and will not break me. This is my choice, not theirs. I always promised myself if I cannot live the way I want to live, then I do not live. I have always enjoyed your good company as you know. Good luck in your life my friend. I move on with pride and honour.

D”

In another of his farewell messages to friends, Mr Fletcher writes (I have made no attempt to correct his spelling):

Many Thanks for your kind thoughts XXX, i have the greatest respect for you as you know, in my language you walk the walk, in my book that takes a real man.

You have succeeded where i failed, and i admire your guts to go on and do the right thing.

I am not giving up just because of these ignorant plebs, but the two main reasons, is not just of being able to carry on helping those poor children, but the loss of my Khmer wife.

I was hit very hard by this and has been a terrible load to carry these years. The love from the children got me over this, but without both for four and half years has been too much to bear.

In my past i have been able to stand up and fight my enymy, i am not able to do that because of vegitating in hell, so now there is only one option.

You were so right one day when you said you thought there was two sides to me, but both those sides, good or bad, have their honor and code.

Here i have no honour or code, and the animals around me live on a different planet to me.

I have taken the pain, as i feel is my honour to do so, but now is enough, these neanderthals are having no more of my life.

I wish to die with dignity and on my own terms, with my finger in the air to them and go to sleep thinking of my Khmer wife and, those wonderful children.

I intend to get dressed in my own clothes and die with my boots on, my mother always said that i would, as always she was right.

My blessing is leaving knowing the good people such as you , through James efforts all know without doubt of my innocence.

Whilst David Fletcher will, metaphorically speaking, be pulling the trigger to end his life in the next two weeks, there are many, including yourself, who, through neglect, lack of interest or compassion or simply a desire to cover up or save face, have handed him the gun.

If there is to be a last-minute Road to Damascus change of heart, Mr Hammond, now is the time to make it by publicly requesting of the Cambodian Minister of Justice that Mr Fletcher be allowed the trial he was promised by the judges of  the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on 27^th Oct and to which he is entitled in accordance with the Cambodian Code of Criminal Procedure.

yours sincerely

James Ricketson