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MAY
2001landmark judgments by the european
court of human rights
On 4th
May the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgments in four cases of
disputed killings.
Gervase McKerr died in 1982 along with Eugene Toman and Sean Burns when the RUC opened fire on their car. The three IRA suspects were unarmed. Their cases were three of the six investigated by the Stalker/Sampson inquiry. Stalker concluded that there were grounds for charging a number of police officers, and Sampson's report was eventually referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. However, in January 1988 the Attorney General, Sir Patrick Mayhew, announced that eight RUC officers involved in a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice would not be prosecuted for reasons of national security. British Irish Rights Watch sent a report on Gervase McKerr’s death to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions in October 1995.
Pearse Jordan was shot by the RUC on the Falls Road in 1992. Eye witnesses said that the stolen car the IRA man was driving was rammed by the police and that he was cornered and shot in the back. He was unarmed.
The Kelly case concerns eight IRA men and one passer-by who died in 1987 when the SAS ambushed the IRA members as they were about to attack a police station in Loughgall, Co Armagh. In view of the fact that the SAS had prior knowledge of the IRA’s plans, human rights groups were concerned that the IRA men were not arrested rather than killed, and that little regard seems to have been had for the safety of uninvolved members of the public.
Patrick Shanagan was killed by the UFF in 1991, not far from his home in Castlederg, Co Tyrone. He had been arrested ten times and his home searched sixteen times in the year prior to his death. The RUC successfully sought judicial review in order to suppress from his inquest evidence suggesting that there may have been collusion in his murder. British Irish Rights Watch sent an independent report concerning his death to the government in 1997.
The Court found
that the investigations into these deaths did not conform with international
human rights standards. Neither the
police investigations nor the inquests met those standards. This is a landmark ruling that affects many other cases, not
only in Northern Ireland, but in the Republic of Ireland and across Europe.
Our congratulations to the Committee on the Administration of Justice and
all the lawyers concerned in bringing these cases.
SEAMUS LUDLOW
On 23rd May I travelled to Dublin for a meeting with the Minister for Justice, John O’Donoghue, concerning the case of Seamus Ludlow, who was murdered by loyalists 25 years ago near Dundalk. The gang who murdered him included two serving UDR soldiers. Serious questions remain unanswered about the police investigations on both sides of the border. Without any consultation with the family, the Irish government announced that it intended to refer the matter to the private Commission of Inquiry that is currently looking at the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Our meeting was deeply unsatisfactory. I regret to report that the relatives received neither the respect nor the justice that they deserve. I have now taken this matter up personally with the Taoiseach.
BILLY WRIGHT
On 2nd
May I met Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, to discuss
Billy Wright’s case. He agreed to
ask a number of questions of the UK government, and we are very grateful for his
intervention.
STOBIE CASE
Billy Stobie, the
loyalist who admits supplying the weapons in the murder of Patrick Finucane but
claims he was an RUC Special Branch agent at the time, appeared in court again
on 18th May. Although
the journalist Neil Mullholland had provided medical reports, the prosecution
was unwilling to accept that he was unfit to testify as a witness.
He has been ordered to appear in person before a closed session of the
court. So the saga continues…
neil latimer’s case referred back to the court of appeal
Neil Latimer was one of four Ulster Defence Regiment members convicted in 1983 of the murder of Catholic Adrian Carroll in Armagh. The four protested their innocence and in July 1992 Noel Bell, Winston Allen and James Hagan won their appeal against conviction, after ESDA tests showed that police interview notes had been altered. Neil Latimer was the only one of the UDR Four to lose his appeal, despite the fact that 9 of the 29 records of his police interviews showed evidence of alteration, including those containing his confession. Neil Latimer has never disputed that he confessed to the crime, but argues that he was so demoralised by the experience of being detained under the emergency laws which he himself had been enforcing that he complied with police suggestions as to what he should say. The Court of Appeal, faced with conflicting identification evidence by two eye witnesses, preferred to accept the evidence that positively identified Neil Latimer, and did not regard the irregularities in police evidence as rendering his conviction unsafe as it had in the cases of the other three defendants. The Criminal Cases Review Commission has now referred the case back to the Court of Appeal.
SAFETY IN NORTHERN IRELAND’S PRISONS
Together with CAJ, the Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders and the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas, on 11th May I met the Governor of HMP Maghaberry, Martin Mogg and two of his colleagues, to discuss complaints we had received from prisoners on all sides of the paramilitary divide about enforced integration in the prison. It was a useful discussion and we are now in a better position to advise prisoners who fear for their safety.
lawyers committee to send another mission to northern ireland
On 16th
May I met Meg Satterthwaite of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, to brief
her on a number of issues relating to the situation of defence lawyers and
policing in Northern Ireland, pending the mission by the Committee due to take
place next month.
NIO EQUALITY SCHEME
Angela Hickey, our
Chair, and I met Christine Collins and three of her colleagues on 25th
May to discuss the scheme drawn up by the Northern Ireland Office to ensure its
compliance with the new duty on public bodies in Northern Ireland to deliver
their services equally to all sections of the community.
welcome to jeeyeon
A warm welcome to
Jeeyeon Park, from Colombia University in New York, who will be interning with
us for the next two months.
Jane Winter,
Director,
31st May 2001.
For Peace Justice & Human Rights
