The Five Demands

Dissidents issue threats at weekend rallies (Belfast Newsletter)

JUST days after the brutal murder of prison officer David Black, dissident republicans held protests in Northern Ireland and the Republic, and at one demonstration said Mr Black was only the first of many more to come.

Rallies were held in both Dublin and Newry on Saturday in support of 41 republican prisoners at Maghaberry Prison who are conducting a dirty protest and also demanding the release of veteran republican Marian Price. Around 300 took part in the protest in Dublin while 100 took part in the Newry event.

Victims campaigner Willie Frazer said around 100 republicans gathered illegally on Monaghan Street in Newry on Saturday with flags and placards.

He recorded several members of the protest taunting him about the murder of his father, warning him that it was a “long, lonely road home”, making threats to him as well as jokes about the murder of Mr Black.

Mr Frazer also said they told him that Mr Black would be “the first of many” and that there would be “more of those ******** before we are finished”.

Prison officers who work in Roe House at Maghaberry, where the dissident republican separated prisoners are housed, have also had to withstand sick jokes about Mr Black’s murder.

The 41 prisoners in this section of the prison are continuing to wage their no wash protest.

Last night, Lurgan republican Colin Duffy and a 31-year-old man were released unconditionally after being questioned by the PSNI about the murder of Mr Black.

A third man, aged 29, arrested by Garda on Friday night, was being questioned by Irish detectives.

Mr Duffy is at the centre of a challenge to the European Court of Human Rights which could force a change in the laws governing the length of time terror suspects can be held.

Under the Terrorism Act 2000, suspects can be held in custody for up to 28 days before either being formally accused or released.

The powers have been in force for more than a decade and have been repeatedly approved by MPs.

In April a panel of three senior judges in Belfast, including Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, agreed to the challenge from Duffy and three unidentified others.

Lawyers for the men argued that during a murder inquiry into the deaths of two soldiers at Massereene military barracks in Antrim during 2009, the UK authorities breached Article 5 of the European Convention, which says suspects should be brought before a judge “promptly” and tried within “reasonable time”.

He has already failed to win a Supreme Court challenge based on human rights.

Duffy has been cleared of terrorism charges on three separate occasions.

He was jailed for life in 1995 for shooting dead former Ulster Defence Regiment soldier John Lyness, but the conviction was overturned at the Court of Appeal a year later.

In 1997, he was charged with shooting dead two Royal Ulster Constabulary constables in Lurgan town centre. The charges were later dropped.

Last January Duffy was acquitted of murdering Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, and Mark Quinsey, 23, in March, 2009.

In a statement, Geraldine and Mehmet Azimkar, the parents of Patrick, told the Sunday Telegraph: “What right does the court at Strasbourg have to overrule the British courts when it is so far removed from the issues that it is supposed to be judging upon? Their consideration seems always to be focused on the human rights of the criminals and terrorists?

“But what about Patrick’s human right? His young and beautiful life was stolen from him at just 21. What about ours? Our hearts and lives are broken without him.”

The issue has previously sparked controversy when Labour attempted to raise the maximum pre-charge detention limit to 90 days.

l Later today the Stormont Assembly will debate Dungannon council’s call for the release of a man who tried to kill one of its own councillors.

Sammy Brush was a part-time soldier with the Ulster Defence Regiment when he was ambushed by an IRA gunman in 1981.

Earlier this year Gerry McGeough was jailed for the attempted murder of Mr Brush.

Then, last month, Dungannon council called for the release of McGeough, debating the issue in the presence of his victim.

The motion split the council along nationalist and unionist lines with the three SDLP councillors supporting the Sinn Fein motion.

Mr Brush said the experience had caused him to suffer ill-health.

Senior DUP party colleagues of the 70-year-old councillor proposed today’s Assembly motion – expressing “revulsion” against “those who side with would-be murderers rather than an innocent public servant”.

The motion has been submitted in the name of Peter Robinson, Lord Morrow and Arlene Foster.

Lord Morrow accused Sinn Fein of sinking to a “new low” when its councillors proposed the motion, and also slammed the SDLP for supporting it.