The Five Demands

Forse la svolta nel processo ai Four Derry, è quanto si evince dopo l’ultima udienza e da quanto si sta vociferando su forum repubblicani. Sulla base infatti degli ultimi accadimenti processuali (ovvero sulle poco credibili e/o contraddittorie testimonianze degli ufficiali del Garda), i giudici hanno avanzato l’ipotesi di arresto illegittimo degli imputati che in mancaza di nuove prove potrebbero anche essere rilasciati.

Da The Irish News
La Special Criminal Court ha stabilito che la detenzione iniziale dei  quattro uomini accusati di adesione IRA è stata illecita.
I 4 imputati sono Gary Donnelly, Michael Gallagher, Martin Francis O’Neill e John McDaid.
La difesa aveva presentato richiesta alla corte di dichiarare illegittimo l’arresto dei quattro uomini di Derry, soprattutto quello di John McDaid. Quest’ultimo infatti, come ha evidenziato anche la corte, potrebbe essere stato arrestato dal sergente Niall Coady, senza specificare che l’arresto stava avvenendo in base ai poteri conferitegli dall’art. 30 dell’Offences Against the State Act.
Si attendono nuovi sviluppi.

Per sabato 20 dicembre 2008, è prevista a Derry una manifestazione a sostegno dei Four Derry e della campagna contro l’internamento preventivo. E’ bene ricordare infatti che nel caso i Four Derry venissero scarcerati, avrebbero comunque trascorsi 9 mesi in carcere senza nessuna formale accusa.

Court rules initial detention of IRA accused unlawfulview list
The Special Criminal Court has ruled that the initial detention of four men accused of IRA membership was unlawful.
The four Derry city men are Gary Donnelly (aged 38), Kildrum Gardens, Michael Gallagher (aged 28), Sackville Court, Martin Francis O’Neill (aged 40), Colmcille Court and Patrick John McDaid (aged 38), Marlborough St.
They have pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óghlaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA, on March 16.
The defence had applied to the court to rule that the arrest and detention of the four accused, in particular Mr McDaid, at or around 3.45pm on March 16 this year, was unlawful.
The court has heard that the four men were arrested the day after a Real IRA press conference which was filmed by the BBC in Derry.
Last week, Sgt Niall Coady told the court that he was observing suspicious vehicles outside the 19th Hole pub in Bridgend when a car occupied by the four accused pulled up and stopped for five seconds before driving down the road, then doing a U-turn and driving toward the border with the North.
Sgt Coady told the court that he chased the car toward the border and that the car pulled in. He said in cross-examination that he informed the accused that he was invoking the powers conferred on him by Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
One of the accused, Mr McDaid, has told the court that Sgt Coady did not explain to him why he was arresting him.
Today Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding at the three-judge, non-jury court, said that “all four accused were, in effect, detained by Sgt Coady before formal arrest.”
He said that the court “must… have some doubt as to whether Sgt Coady informed the accused that he was invoking Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
“We therefore hold that the initial detention was unlawful.”
The trial continues.