#Panorama to show absence of very good tools to critique the state

Tonight’s BBC Panorama programme will detail allegations about the operation of the Military Reaction Force, or MRF, and how it killed unarmed civilians as part of its work up until 1973. The programme has identified ten unarmed civilians it believes were shot by MRF members operating undercover. It also will include a claim that a Ministry of Defence review concluded that the MRF had “no provision for detailed command and control”. As with so much reportage about ‘the past’, they aren’t particularly new …

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Lord Chief Justice: “These are allegations of specific conduct. We cannot infer that the disclosure was inadequate”

Having sought, and been granted, a stay on July’s judicial review ruling for unconditional bail for Martin Corey until an appeal could be heard, the Court of Appeal has now ruled in favour of the Northern Ireland Secretary of State.  From the BBC report The Court of Appeal had to decide whether the process undertaken by the panel, involving a gist of the information, was flawed. Judges carried out the assessment without access to the closed material. Delivering judgment on Friday, …

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“the learned judge who granted bail [] did not have the power to do so in the particular circumstances of this case”

Despite earlier reports that the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, had ordered Martin Corey’s re-arrest following the judicial review ruling for unconditional bail in the case, it appears he merely sought a stay while an appeal was prepared.  The Belfast Telegraph notes the Appeal Court’s initial ruling A judge who granted unconditional bail to a convicted double murderer did not have the power to do so, the Court of Appeal has ruled. Martin Corey is now expected to remain …

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NI Secretary of State blocks Martin Corey release

Sinn Féin’s Raymond McCartney, deputy chair of the Assembly’s Justice Committee [and noted plagiarist! – Ed], may have welcomed today’s Belfast court ruling that the Parole Commissioners had breached former Provisional IRA member Martin Corey’s human rights in refusing to release him, and ordering his release on unconditional bail.  But the Guardian reports that Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Owen Paterson has intervened.  Corey had been released on licence in 1992 after serving 19 years for the murder of two policemen.  Former NI Secretary …

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“Shaun Woodward ordered his recall on the basis of what his legal team have described as ‘closed material’.”

The BBC reports that Martin Corey has been “granted leave to seek a judicial review of the decision to revoke his licence over unspecified allegations that he was involved with dissident republicans.” The 61-year-old from Lurgan, County Armagh had been released on licence in 1992, having served 19 years of a life sentence for the murder of two RUC officers. In April last year, then Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward, as the BBC report notes, “ordered his recall on the …

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