Guest writer Helen McClafferty is maintaining a watching brief on the juryless trial of Irish Republican Gerry McGeough
March 8, 2010 - 1st day of trial
Opening statements, and then the rest of the day was focused on Vincent McAnaspie.
March 9, 2010 - 2nd day of trial
Gerry has completed a second grueling day in the Diplock Court. He compares the experience to being held captive in an Orange Lodge, such is the general anti-Catholic, anti-Irish atmosphere of the place.
To date, much of the "evidence" has consisted of reading the statements of dead people into the record. Under the Diplock system's "Hearsay Laws", the statements of witnesses who have in this case died of old age decades ago may be accepted as evidence. Needless to say, cross-examining these people presents something of a challenge. British Justice at its finest.
There has been a significant development in the on-going saga of Gerry's trial. Two major Human Rights groups have given notice to the Diplock Court that they are sending in their own lawyers as observers to monitor the proceedings. Gerry has welcomed the move by the Commission for the Administration of Justice (CAJ) and British Irish Rights Watch (BIRW). A lawyer from the CAJ was in court today and this presence is set to continue.
March 11, 2010 - 4th day of trial
Gerry's trial has been halted. This latest move has come about as a consequence of his legal team arguing that they cannot put up a proper defense until they have full disclosure of all relevant material.
The Diplock Trial has been stopped while his lawyers attempt to get a court order forcing the Northern Ireland Office to release vital material which is crucial to the defense arguement. To date the NIO has refused to even acknowledge the existence of this information. Now, it is hoped that they will be forced to release it. This latest dramatic development begs the question as to why the trial was allowed to begin and proceed in the first place given the absence of documentation central to the defense case.
Human Rights lawyers have been made aware of the development and will be present at the hearing seeking full and unrestricted disclosure.
March 12 - 5th day of trial
In what appears to be yet another "first" in the Diplock Court history, Gerry's trial has now been ajourned until Monday, March 22nd. The interruption of a trial of this nature is regarded as being highly unorthodox.
The move comes in the wake of a hectic day during which a High Court Order was issued demanding that the NIO release documentation crucial to the Defense case.
The NIO has until Tuesday next to hand over this material, which they have so far refused to do. Journalists are watching events with a keen interest amid speculation that the NIO may attempt to invoke special legislation in order to prevent the release of information that is being described as "highly sensitive".
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Really wondering would this be happening to Gerry Mc Geough if he was still a member of Sinn Fein. Have not heard a lot from that quarter, these days the shinners seem to be of the opinion that republicans are guilty until proven innocent. Unless you are charged with money laundering or fraud of course, in that case they will encourage people to give you character references and justify your position on the policing board. How did we ever get to this?
ReplyDeleteSeeing that the GFA was written by MI5, comprises 67.5 pages of mutual contradictions, aspirational posturing, and baffle-gab, with only one-half page of enforceable text, why is anyone surprised that Occupied Ireland is now a province of Britain? That crucial half-page mandated the excision of Articles 2 and 3 of Ireland's constitution, thus handing over the Six Counties to Britain. People must demand that Adams & Co explain how Ireland's unification was advanced by excision of Articles 2 and 3, and why they fronted for it.
ReplyDeleteNuala, an interesting question at the end; one I have asked many times myself. A combination of reasons I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how the state can justify this prosecution at all. Under the terms of the GFA, it has already released a lot of people convicted of more deadly acts than what Gerry McGeough has been charged with, and it has also given a kind of unofficial amnesty to countless other former members of paramilitary groups that have ceased activity. So why is Gerry McGeough the being targeted? It must be because of his anti-PSNI (and anti-Sinn Fein) stance.
ReplyDeleteHighly unsatisfactory as the Diplock courts undoubtedly are they are still fairer then any "trial" ever conducted by the IRA past or present. Moreover, the worst sanction that can happen to an accused in a "Brit" court is imprisonment, whilst before a Republican "Court" the penalty is death (preceeded perhaps by torture). The Republican movement is one of the last groups in Europe that still belives in capital punishment! Given the Republican movement's stress on human rights it is strange that they do not practice what they preach. Gerry McG is better off getting tried by a Brit Court, however bisased, than before a Provo Court where the basic presumption is "everyone not a friend of Gerry Adam is presumed guilty" and torture and/or death is the Republican form of care in the community!
ReplyDeleteInvocante.
ReplyDeleteReally good to know that all we can expect from the British courts is a bit of injustice. The worst sanction you tell us is imprisonment. How does the republicans they took out and hanged fit with your theory? What about the few hung, drawn and quartered? What about the people who walked free from Brit justice, who were then stalked in some cases hunted down and murdered? Just wondering did someone like yourself ever get a taster of Brit justice? Or do you just like to tell the rest of us how lucky we are that we only faced Brit justice?
Lets be clear I am not defending British rule or British courts. I was making a much narrower point viz McGeough will walk out of this trial alive which is more than Ciaran Doherty did after his trial. Which would you in all honestly face as the accused a Brit court, where even, if judge and prosecution are as biased as can be, at least you have defence lawyer and the oxygen of publicity or a secret Republican one, which no defence and the very realpossibility of a bullet in the head? You yourself condemned Doherty's killing. I fail to see how centuries of British injustice justifies Republicans practicing injustice on their own community.
ReplyDeleteAnthony, 1st time poster from the US. Thanks for getting the word out on what we can do to let the Swedish government how we feel about their complicity in this sham. I enjoy your blog immensely and find it thought provoking. Your positions hit out at sacred cows and your reasoned voice of dissent is refreshing. Keep up the great work !
ReplyDeleteInvocante,
ReplyDeleteApologies for using the centuries old argument, even my son said it sounded just a bit melodramtic. However, that does not detract from the fact very often Irish Republicans did not always walk away with a prison sentence and personally I find it quite offensive when people say otherwise.
I would never try and justify what happened to Ciaran Doherty, however, I think your argument is weakened by the fact that you are using an act of injustice as a yardstick to measure an even worse injustice.
Can you really say that Gerard Conlon or his father who died in prison were lucky? Do you think when they were beaten half to death and forced to confess, they thought, "Thank God it's the Brits, if it was someone else we might consider ourselves unfortunate." Or the Birmingham Six, I bet they were really chuffed.
Invocante, most of the horrors that continue in our country do so because we are still enjoying the legacy of Brit rule, or have you forgotten that?