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, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan said: “We do not consider that such an exercise leads to the conclusion that the Parole Commissioners have erred in making disclosure.”
He said the allegations against Corey identified the person with whom he is alleged to be involved and the activities, including recruitment and weapons procurement.
“These are allegations of specific conduct. We cannot infer that the disclosure was inadequate,” he said.
Sir Declan also pointed out that the special advocate who saw all of the material did not take issue with the process.
Allowing the appeal, he added: In each of these instances we have focused upon the ability of the special advocate to refute the allegations in light of instructions given to him.
“A denial by the detainee that a meeting occurred or that a topic was discussed addresses a specific allegation and is quite different from the denial of a general allegation such as membership of an organisation.”
It’s just another stage in that – Jim Gibney identified – “carefully planned campaign of intimidation orchestrated by MI5 [] directed at David Ford, the north’s justice minister, the life sentence parole board inside the prison and the north’s judiciary.” Just saying…
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