Dublin agrees to UK request for extradition of 7/7 documentary maker

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Thursday April 02, 2009 16:56

by K. Harris - nmn

A Dublin judge has conceded to the extradition of a man for the crime of posting a DVD to the judge of a 7/7 terror trial in the UK.

William Hill, 60, was been remanded in custody on Thursday, 2 April 2009 for a minimum of 15 days by the High Court judge Justice Michael Peart, pending extradition to the UK. Mr Hill, who has lived in Ireland for the past 10 years, can appeal the decision, which would postpone any extradition until the results of the appeal.

Mr Hill, who calls himself Maud ‘Dib after a character in the science fiction novel and film Dune, posted a DVD containing his documentary 7/7 The Ripple Effect, with no covering letter, to the UK London bombings terror trial judge as he says he is is convinced that a miscarriage of justice was about to take place in the UK trial. The documentary has been freely available on the Internet for the past year.

The posted copy was not given to the judge, to whom the package was addressed but was instead given straight to police, which resulted in an extradition request to the Irish authorities. The UK wants to charge Mr Hill with an attempt to ‘pervert the course of justice’ which carries a maximum term of life imprisonment.

Friends of the arrested man have on their website http://mtrial.org/action called on people to anonymously post copies of the documentary to High Court judges in Ireland and to the trial judges in the UK, and to the prosecution and jury foreman.

The website claims that as nothing was sent with the DVD posted to the trial judge except the documentary itself, which contains mostly footage compiled from broadcast television, Mr Hill was in effect expressing his opinion, which is not a crime and the right of which is guaranteed under international laws to which both the UK and Ireland are signatories.