The Five Demands

Colin Duffy e Brian Shivers compariranno in tribunale il 14 gennaio prossimo, nell’udienza in cui verrà fissata la data del processo per l’attentato alla base militare di Massereene il 7 marzo 2009. Udienza odierna ritardata a causa delle molestie subite da Colin Duffy durante uno strip search

Colin Duffy e Brian Shivers riviati a giudizio per l’attentato alla base militare di Massereene, quando il 7 marzo 2009 rimasero uccisi Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23 anni, di Birmingham, e Patrick Azimkar, 21 anni, di Londra.
Sono serviti due mesi al giudice distrettuale George Connor, per giungere ad una decisione dopo le udienze preliminari che avevano visto la presentazione in extremis di nuovi elementi di prova che secondo la difesa avrebbe potuto smontare la tesi accusatoria.
Il giudice ha sentenziato a Colin Duffy e Brian Shivers, che, dopo aver esaminato tutti gli elementi vi sono “prove sufficienti per mandare questi due uomini al processo”, sottolineando che la Vauxhall abbandonato può essere “collegata al crimine ….. e che le tracce di DNA appartenente agli imputati, sono collegati alla macchina.”
Colin Duffy e Brian Shivers si sono dichiarati entrambi estranei a quello che è stato descritto dall’accusa un “attacco omicida a sorpresa lanciato da uomini armati di armi automatiche contro un gruppo di ignari soldati e civili”.
Nessun commento alle accuse, nessuna testimonianza e nessun testimone a discarico degli imputati.
L’udienza odierna ha avuto inizio in ritardo, come quella preliminare dello scorso ottobre. Un ritardo non addebitabile alle avverse condizioni atmosferiche, ma all’ennesima aggressione subita da Colin Duffy durante uno strip search all’interno del carcere di Maghaberry. A nulla sembra essere valso l’accordo tra prigionieri e servizi carcerari sull’introduzione del Rapiscan che avrebbe dovuto in parte sostituire o nel peggiore dei casi ridurre il ricorso alle perquisizioni corporali.
Al termine dell’udienza Colin Duffy è stato riaccompagnato nel carcere di massima sicurezza nei pressi di Lisburn, mentre per Brian Shivers vige tutt’ora il provvedimento di libertà provvisoria nel rispetto delle sue precarie condizioni di salute.

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• Pair to face sappers murder trial (bbc.co.uk)

Duffy and Shivers to stand trial for Massereene murders (UTV)
A judge has ruled that Lurgan republican Colin Duffy and Magherafelt man Brian Shivers will be returned for trial next month accused of murdering two soldiers in the Real IRA gun attack on Massereene army base in March 2009.
Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, were shot dead as they collected pizzas from a take-away delivery man.
Duffy and Shivers were returned to Belfast Crown Court on January 14 next year for a date to be fixed for their trial.
District Judge George Connor, who had adjourned his decison for nearly two months following a three-day preliminary investigation in Coleraine, said there was a ‘Prima Facia case’ for them to answer in the murders of Sapper Quinsey, from Birmingham and Londoner Azimkhar.
Following final submissions in the case, the Magistrates’ Court judge told 42-year-old Duffy , and 45-year-old Shivers, that having reviewed all of the evidence there was “sufficient evidence to return these two men for trial.”
Mr Connor said he was mindful he was not trying the case, but it was clear that the abandoned Vauxhall car can be “connected to the crime …..and the evidence the DNA evidence show that the defendants are connected to the car.”
Duffy from Forest Glade in Lurgan, and Shivers from Sperrin Mews, Magherafelt, deny any involvement in what the prosecution described as a “surprise murderous attack …launched by gunmen armed with automatic weapons against an unsuspecting group of soldiers and civilians”.
They refused to say anything about the charges against them, or to give evidence on their own behalf or to call any witness to give evidence or to lodge any witness statement in court.
Duffy was remanded back into custody while Shivers was freed on continuing bail.
The pair whose DNA was allegedly recovered from the gunmen’s Vauxhall Cavilier car, are also accused of the attempted murder of four other soliders and the two delivery men injured in the attack and possession of the two AKM rifles used by the gunmen.
An unnamed Sapper who was among those injured in the murderous attack the night before their regiment was due for deployment in Afghanstan, has since been discharged from the army on “medical grounds”. He was said to have suffered multiple injuries including leg wounds.
Thursday’s hearing, like those in October, was delayed, not by the snow, but by further claims by Duffy’s lawyers that he’d been physically assaulted during a prison strip-search.
It had been hoped that the introduction of a super Rapiscan scanners and ‘BOSS’, body orifice security scanners, at the north’s toughest prisons, allegedly as part of a deal between the authorities and republican prisoners, would have avoided such conflicts.
However, it is understood that the scanners, described by Justice Commission Chairman Lord Maurice Morrow as a sop to republicans, are still at the testing stage and won’t come online for sometime.
Duffy’s lawyer Barry MacDonald QC, SC said he wished from the outset to “issue a protest to the treatment of Mr Duffy ….. which leaves him injured and suffering problems as a result”.
In final submissions to the court, the prosecution claimed that they did not have to assign any specific role to either defendant, but to show they were party to a conspiracy whose aim was, and did succeed in the murder of soldiers.
The defence in turn accused the prosecution of presenting “nothing but a smoke screen” with much of the evidence being little more than a “red herring” and that the pair should be discharged as there is no credible DNA or other evidence against them.