Forgotten Justice?

by R.A.D Wed Nov 14, 2007 19:32

http://en.wikipeadia.org/wiki/Special_Criminal_Court

another one today- thats six named recently in the Irish Newspapers serving four years each on evidence of a Garda and no jury.
The SCC was instituted in 1939, interestingly, there seems no mention of Politically motivated imprisonments on the human rights watch websites.
Can membership of an organisation proscribed by the state lead to special courts, special sittings
and four years sentences without orgs such as Amnesty intl. investigating State reasoning in
the issue. Current reports suggest that the men in question have not done anything but
'take up membership'. Also naming people who have not had the benefit of Jury trial and
publishing their addresses in Newspapers creates human rights problems for family members?????
Irish Times have published the name and address of the latest member to be committed to
custody on the word of a garda; and we have no functional independent ombudsman.

by Link Fri Nov 09, 2007 19:26

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/1147...omnet

The case is at link, there does seem a definite uneveness in how news is presented and
what resources induce the spin. I found the 'Slab' Murphy interest to be negligible, while a
legal challenge to a perceived unlawful detention was virtually ignored.

by Mainstream Fri Nov 09, 2007 18:53

Very rarely do I watch TV but last night was an exception and I wondered at two channels coverageof the 'Oglaigh' issue...

Papparazi all over the place to cover the 'Slab' Murphy arresting and bailing, and absolutely nothing
on the challenge by five men to their continued incarceration in Portlaoise prison for membership
of the RA. The case will be heard soon, five men are challenging their arrest and imprisonment
by an Irish court and the media send crews to the arrest of Murphy. I do not know much about
the cases but am pretty sure that if papers have been issued that an iota of media coverage
in what is claimed to be an unlawful imprisonment case should have happened. The
media went on to photograph Murphy's relatives and went into great detail about how much
land was put up for independent surety. The 2006 report from the US Dept on Irish prisons claimed
that Ireland has no history of detaining political prisoners and no mention is made in the Amnesty
Report; but there has been a significant amount of coverage on the issue of Northern Ireland within
the last 48 hours with only dribs and drabs emerging through media land. If anyone can furnish a link
with details of the five cases , it would be appreciated. I begin to wonder of we should watch the News
just to see what is not being covered in terms of human rights issue. Will update the thread.

by Reductio Fri Sep 07, 2007 10:30

Benediction is it now???

I wonder who the GRA answer to.
We all know that we have armed ERU- cos they shot dead three Irish men...
Two at Lusk Post office and one in a siege, his name was John Mac Carthy. it seems that
John Mac Carthy had Psychological problems and they used Psych warfare against him,
Like not allowing a frightened young man talk to his sister. he's dead now. The ERU
are back at work, armed and dangerous. The Lusk issue was buried , and no-one knows
who killed Donaldson, though of course it did happen in Donegal which would make the
investigation- another internal garda matter.

Now the 26 counties have been a soverign State for a while, with it seems Branch,
secret service and armed Gardai and they are answerable to no-one?

[Thats not really good enough, files get lost or buried, The minister for Justice
must speak to someone who orders the branch into homes and intimidate people
or are they a law onto themselves- a state within a state- like the RA were accused of
being...]

by Sceptic Thu Sep 06, 2007 22:52

Reductio, the next time you are waiting on a bus at busaras go into Keating’s and have a pint and spare us another political benediction caused by thinking too hard about Lions and Unicorns and all that flow from them. Oh and the reason there is no head of Irish intelligence is that there is no separate agency. The function is embedded within the Gardai.

by Reductio Thu Sep 06, 2007 10:46

It is amazing when you walk around the Government buildings that there is still a massive amount
of British iconography on display- you would think that Grattan Ahern is a bureaucrat for some
hidden union between Britain and Ireland with Bush in the driving seat....

Of course our laws would have to be very similar:- Prisons/immigration/biometric ids.
I was thinking about this as I waited a bus at Busaras yesterday and stood having a fag looking at
the Huge Lion and Unicorn that graces John Gormley's office.

Another writer on this newswire has asked why we have no named , accountable head of the Irish
Secret Services whose duty it is to report to Dail Committees. I re-iterate that.

There have been multiple complaints of Gardai abuse- they like to be tried separately, having really good
legal teams and a noted male hierarchy. While protestors such as the Wheelocks, the Bannisters
The Lyons Family and the Mac Carthy family still seek answers. The RTS victims were not given redress
and relocated Gardai hooligans still work in the force!

The issue of extra-judicial state execution is also interesting with the post-office murders heading the list
along with the jurisdictional responsibility for the Denis Donaldson murder.

There have been five or six stories on the newswire about failed process, Branch abuse, use of tech
and surveillance but an interesting shift has occured, the people who are complaining are not
Republican Dissidents but:-

1. Socialist Political Groups.
2.Eco Groups.
3.Anti-Globalisation groups.
4.Families of Garda abuse victims.

It must be great to be protected by closeness to the state and its offices.
The Ombudsman is not enough at this point , Grattan Ahern has not demonstrated the freedom from
political influence of the Garda Siochana and must appoint a named and accountable head of
intelligence to answer to the Irish People. or maybe FF have been in power so long and made such
lovely friendships that the corruption indicated in their offices has just leeched into the system.

by Reductio Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:07

July 6th saw this publication by the Pat Finucane Centre:-

http://www.patfinucanecentre.org/misc/opbanner.html

http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/index.asp?locID=560&docID=3352

Analysis:- http://www.tomgriffin.org/the_green_ribbon/2007/07/oper....html

The ongoing analysis of collusion amongst security services is weighted aginst the repression of
organisation of political dissent. The IRSP has reported twice on this newswire the repression of members
of their organisation. In PR terms the political perception of facilitating or negating collusion through
commissioning of expensive reports (from which no criminal charges will arise) is weighted against
the refusal to countenance basic rights of assembly by a State uninterested in meeting with
adovcates of smaller groups.

by Reductio ad Absurdum Wed Aug 29, 2007 15:37

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83971
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83881