Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Terrorism Act detention extension overturned by High Court
As the BBC report, following an emergency judicial review, a High Court panel headed by Northern Ireland’s Lord Chief Justice, Sir Brian Kerr, has overturned a County Court ruling allowing police to detain six people for questioning about recent republican paramilitary murders for an additional 7 days under the 2006 Terrorism Act. The six must now be charged or released. [Adds RTÉ report] Update Five released, Colin Duffy re-arrested. From the BBC report
After hearing an emergency judicial review application, a High Court panel headed by Northern Ireland’s Lord Chief Justice, Sir Brian Kerr, overturned the county court judge’s decision. “By reason only of the judge’s conclusion that she was precluded from considering the lawfulness of the applicants arrest I have decided that her decision must be quashed,” he said.
A solicitor representing one of those being questioned over the murder of Constable Carroll said he now expected his client to be released. Joe McVeigh, of Kevin R Winters solicitors, welcomed the ruling. “We have always taken the view that not to examine the conduct of arresting officers when considering to detain people under the Terrorism Act has always been a breach of human rights,” he said.
Adds High Court ruling is online here. Extract below the fold.
Key paragraphs from the ruling
[28] It appears to us, therefore, that paragraphs 5 and 32 of Schedule 8 to the Terrorism Act must be read in conformity with the requirements of article 5 (3) of the Convention as they have been explained in the jurisprudence of the European Court. The review of the lawfulness of the detention must embrace an examination of the basis for the arrest. If it were otherwise, a person could be detained under the 2000 Act for up to twenty eight days without there having been any judicial review of the lawfulness of the original arrest and that, in our view, could not be compliant with article 5 of ECHR.
[29] We have concluded, therefore, that the learned judge was wrong to disavow any review of the lawfulness of the applicants’ arrest and on that account her decision must be quashed. In fairness to her, it should be recorded that she was urged by counsel for the respondent to that view and that paragraph 5 of Schedule 8, read in isolation, does appear to preclude such a review.
[30] We accept Mr Maguire’s argument that a review of the lawfulness of arrest need not involve a detailed analysis of the basis for the decision to arrest and it should reflect the constraints that necessarily apply in many arrests for terrorist offences where the full information on which a decision to arrest is taken cannot, for reasons of public safety, be revealed. It would be unwise to essay a more specific prescription than this, however, since much will depend on the particular facts of an individual arrest.
Pete Baker @ 09:20 AM
to pete. the timing of this is perfect for dup especially, so, in the run up to euro elections we can now expect to see headlines like ‘dup fury at this interfereference from lefty judges in process of police work’. priceless
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 10:35 AMWho cares about the DUP!
28 Day Rule exposed as illegal action!
Victory to Real Republicans!
Justice against British Rule in Ireland!
PSF Traitors now must learn you can not finger people just cause they hate you!
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 10:45 AMPresumably this will set the cat among the pigeons over in Whitehall. Or can it be interpreted narrowly, I wonder?
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 10:45 AMBritish justice, Rory.
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 10:47 AMPicador
British Justice put in its Place
Onwards to Victorty
Oglaigh Na hEireann Abu!
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 10:48 AMSo they have been illegally detained for 4/5 days and they aren’t immediately released? Those depriving them of their liberty, the RUC/PSNI, get to go away and have a wee think about releasing them?
Meet the new boss…..
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 10:50 AMSorry Pete this is a terrible ruling. This will bring out all the Republican backwoods men and allow them to revel in the fact that the law of the land can be set aside so glibly. It is a scandal for the Court service that they have allowed themselves to be used by Republicans, the law of the land states that people can be held for 28 days to over turn the law of the land should not be allowed no matter what. Whatever the County court judge said or did she at least held up the laws of the UK of which Northern Ireland is a part and yes I hope that the DUP use this to the best of their ability. The interference of the court in this matter is to hinder and stymie the good work of the police and will be to the detriment of police work in trying to put murderers behind bars where they belong. Shame on Justice Kerr for siding with the alleged criminals or should I say alleged murderers
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 10:55 AMSGC
Stop calling those INNOCENT MEN!!!
I am delighted to see the British Criminals in Ireland licking their wounds!
They can not break the Revolutionaries or the Revolution!Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:01 AMDear oh dear - nothing like a flurry of dunder-head-ed bar room lawyers blustering on about what a judgement which they haven’t read does or doesn’t mean. The chief granted the relief sought because the County Court judge had erroneously considered herself incapable of analysing the lawfulness or otherwise of the initial arrest in respect of which she was being asked to grant an extension. The court’s decision has shag all squared to do with the parliamentary or legislative integrity of 28 day detention. The County Court judge fucked up - end of story.
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:13 AMBemused
So the top and bottom of what you are saying is that British Judicial system in the occupied 6 Counties is wholely incapable of administering or tending to the matters of Illegal British law?
Or are you tripping over your words my friend?
Any how it is now disgraceful that Mr Colin Duffy is being re-arrested on more trumped up charges!
Do these people really know what they are doing???
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:26 AMRory, I have a business idea for you.
It will be a communications network solely for dissident republicans - it will be called Twatter.
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:35 AMIt would appear to be moot, anyway. Looks like you can hold someone indefinitely by releasing them and then immediately rearresting them for the same offence. That would seem to go against the spirit of the law unless the detainee is immediately charged with a specific offence. Presumably, if not charged, there will be an emergency appeal.
Is this just another PPS cock-up?Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:35 AMThank you, Bemused, for making things simple - an act of mercy really when dealing with the simple-minded I fear.
If, as appears to be the case, the County Court judge felt that she was unable to determine the lawfullness of the arrests, then, by default, they failed to be lawful and the Lord Chief Justice had no option in law but to refuse an extension of detention based upon arrests which had not been capable of being deemed lawful by the County Court judge. There is no threat to existing legislation as a result of the decision of the Lord Chief Justice and no precedent has been set.
The ridiculous crowing of my namesake from South Derry can be safely ignored. Not, I suppose, that anyone needs my advice before ignoring him.
We may however wish to ponder further the strange reluctance of the County Court judge to make a determination on the lawfullness or otherwise of the arrests and no doubt this will give rise to further speculation as to whether or not the arrests were indeed lawful.
Not very edifying I know, but then little has been in what passes for judicial process in this sorry little statelet since its bloody inception.
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:37 AMJoe
Looks like you can hold someone indefinitely by releasing them and then immediately rearresting them for the same offence!
This will be overturned by getting the European Court of Human Rights Involved!
The Brits appear to be making it up as they go along!
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:38 AMBrendan McConville has been charged with murder.
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:41 AMScaramoosh
Why don’t you sell it to the Brits!
They are making a monumental bollocks of everything at the moment!
Or
P O’Neill who seems to have lost his voice
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:42 AMWow. Bemused read the post and identified the reason for the judge’s decision, rather than just reading the headline. radical notion.
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:44 AM“British Law Fails in Ireland”
That show be the headline in every newspaper tomorrow morning & I wanna see their noses rubbed in it!
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:47 AMRory (South Derry)
I think you have to be careful about the dissident actions. For example, were they manipulated by Sinn Fein for reasons unknown to most punters? There is a more rational explanation as to why the Republican Movement panicked and allowed and I’ll say it again, allowed the dissident attacks. You must ask the question, who has infiltrated the dissidents more, Sinn Fein, the British or PSNI? The answer is evidently that it is not the British or PSNI, or they would have stopped the killings. But what would Sinn Fein’s reason be to do that?
The Bishop of Derry Dr Seamus Hegarty’s unwitting intervention in writing to me to inform me that he would seek to have a professional theologian look at my book seems to have unnerved the Republican Movement. The book refers to my 1986 experience in discovering that Gerry Adams name comes out at 666 on a numeric alphabet.
It seems that my attempt to get press coverage was a signal to them to try to underscore Gerry Adams’ position and make it seem unassailable by using their influence with dissident republicans who then attacked Massereen Barracks. The PSNI officer was the icing on the cake, in their perverse terms, keeping Adams even more sweet.
Again the only (much delayed) coverage I get for the story came last Friday in the Derry Journal and that day there also appears a letter in the Irish News from a Cork priest, belittling Mark Durkan and the SDLP (and their support), and supporting the Sinn Fein position that the IRA violence of the Troubles was justified. My coverage was delayed in my opinion to give them time to get that opposing measure in place.
So you have to be careful about Sinn Fein. They are capable of even greater evil than you think.Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:48 AMJohn,
What algorithm do you use to determine whether or not you are being given the big brush-off?
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 11:52 AMJohn
The Provisional movement are capable of anything -of that there is no doubt!
They have tried every trick in the book from trying to discredit the republican credentials of activists down to having active service volunteers arrested and even ambushed in 1992!
They are lackies to the brits now and if the truth be known doing their dirty work since the early 90s.
There are definitely dark forces at work
I applaude your continued efforts to expose them for what they are!
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 12:02 PMgeez, there are getting to be more and more loons on this site, well done to the sensible ones who actually managed to read to the end.
Could everyone else just stop posting the first rant that comes into their wee heads, after reading the headline.
The law of the land has not been turned over by republicans, there is nothing in this ruling for the DUP to make capital out of - except a poor ruling by a county court judge.
I suppose Duffy could only be rearrested on a different charge, so is there more evidence against him, how long can he be held for another 7 days, 28 days (with the proper ‘paperwork’)? does anyone know
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 12:04 PMInfiltration, John. That’s it. You got it spot on.
Remember Dr Strangelove? It’s the infiltration of the water supply with fluoride - a Communist plot to weaken our Purity of Essence (POE).
Don’t drink the water, John, unless it comes from Lourdes (and been certified pure by the chief officer for health - some of that stuff from Lourdes is absolutely filthy. It would kill a healthy warthog at fifty yards). Better still, stick to the whiskey.
Remember, John, Purity of Essence, Purity of Essence, POE, POE…..
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 12:09 PMIs it me or is it a bit weird that Brendan McConville has been charged with possessing an AKM assault rifle and 26 rounds of ammunition, which I’m guessing is the same weapon and ammo as the 17 year old was charged over. I’m guessing it must have both sets of fingerprints? but they don’t seem to be connecting it with the murder.
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 12:13 PMFin
When this all pans out it will all be nonsense!
The Forces of the Crown are making this up as they go along.
Now the unfortunate thing for Brendan and the 17 year old they will probably remain behind bars for at least 12 months while the brits play political football with the case!
FREE THE LURGAN 2!!!!!!!
Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 @ 12:19 PM
