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SEPTEMBER 2003
CORY TO REPORT NEXT MONTH, but no publication until december
On 22nd September I met Judge Peter Cory in London, together with Amnesty International and the Committee on the Administration of Justice. He told us that he will be reporting to the British and Irish governments on 7th October on the six collusion cases he has considered: Patrick Finucane, Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill, Billy Wright, Lord and Lady Gibson, and Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan. I then went on to meet the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Paul Murphy, at Hillsborough with some of Rosemary Nelson’s family. He told us that, despite the long wait that the families have had for justice – the Finucane family have been waiting fourteen years – the reports will not be published until December 2003. He did, however, pledge that the British government will implement Judge Cory’s recommendations and that the families will be allowed to see advance copies of the reports prior to publication.
We believe that Judge Cory is an honest and independent judge, although we remain concerned about the secondment of British civil servants to his team. He has worked very hard over long hours, at considerable personal cost. In the four British cases with which we have been involved, we believe that there is a strong case for a public inquiry, and we find it difficult to conceive that a judge of Peter Cory’s standing could come to any other conclusion. If he does recommend public inquiries, then it is vital that they conform to domestic and international human rights standards, that they take place promptly, and that they lead to measures that will ensure that collusion is eradicated in the future. The families, who have not only lost their loved ones but have been thrust unwillingly into the limelight by their loss, must be satisfied with the terms of reference for any inquiry and with the make-up of the tribunal. Given that the government stands accused of collusion, an international element is vital to ensure the independence of any inquiry. So far, the government has had to be dragged reluctantly nearer to providing justice for these families. The time has come for them to give in gracefully and to co-operate fully with any public inquiries, which are the only available process for finally laying these cases to rest.
MARTIN O’HAGAN
This month sees the second anniversary of the murder by the LVF of investigative journalist Martin O’Hagan. On 23rd September I received a detailed briefing from the PSNI concerning the murder investigation. As has all too often been the case in Northern Ireland, the perpetrators are known to the police but evidence that will stand up in court is hard to come by. This is a tragedy not only for Martin O’Hagan’s family but for all journalists in Northern Ireland. Despite the ceasefires and the peace process, journalists in Northern Ireland are still being threatened and are still going about their work in fear. We have been in correspondence with the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression about the latest threat to the Andersonstown News group only this month. It is hardly surprising that, with a few honourable exceptions, journalists are not queuing up to fill Martin O’Hagan’s shoes.
BILLY WRIGHT
It is depressing, therefore, that some journalists seem to be prepared to abandon all ethical standards. Once again the family of LVF leader Billy Wright, have opened the Sunday World to find pictures of his dead body plastered across its pages. Nothing could justify such bad taste, but the only impetus behind the publication of these pictures seems to be that the newspaper, having presumably paid for this apparently stolen property, wants to use them to sell papers. To add insult to injury, the PSNI has said that it will not investigate how the photographs came to be in the hands of the Sunday World. We have written to Chief Constable Hugh Orde asking him to reconsider this decision. The only people with legitimate access to the pictures are public servants; it is in everyone’s interests that whoever did this is deterred from inflicting similar anguish on some other family.
POLICE OMBUDSMAN’S POLICY QUESTIONABLE
We are becoming increasingly concerned by reports that the Police Ombudsman is delaying investigation of older cases because she claims she does not have enough resources to do so. We believe that she should receive all the resources that she needs to carry out her role effectively, and we have said as much to the government. However, singling out cases that arose years ago and which have never been properly investigated seems to us a mistaken policy. It is self evident that the older a case is the more urgent is the need for enquiry in case witnesses die or evidence is lost. If the Ombudsman has insufficient resources, she should spread out the resultant delays equally among all complainants, rather than discriminating against those who have the most to lose from delay. This issue seems bound to be tested in the courts sooner or later.
SAFETY AT MAGHABERRY PRISON
The team asked to review safety at Maghaberry has bowed to the what some considered to be the inevitable and recommended a degree of segregation for paramilitary prisoners in the jail. The prison authorities are naturally anxious to avoid a return to the regime that held sway in the Maze, where prisoners effectively controlled the wings. This state of affairs led to two murders – those of Billy Wright and David Keys, who was also tortured – and is by no means any guarantee of safety for individual prisoners. The challenge now for the Prison Service is to provide a humane and safe regime for all its prisoners without ceding control to those who support the use of violence to achieve their ends.
access to legal advice
During the dirty protest mounted by prisoners in Maghaberry in their bid for political segregation, some prisoners were denied access to their lawyers, even though they had trials pending. A judicial review brought by these prisoners was unsuccessful. We are grateful to Claire Leonard for acting as our observer during the hearing. We understand that an appeal is under consideration. We have written to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers concerning this matter.
LOOK OUT, THERE’S A PRISON OFFICER ABOUT!
We have written to the Secretary of State to ask him why it has been thought necessary to designate the Northern Ireland Office for the purposes of s. 41 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000; why it has been thought necessary to give powers of intrusive surveillance to the Northern Ireland Prison Service; and why apparently any member of the Prison Service will be able to exercise those powers.
Jane Winter,
Director,
30th September 2003.
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
