Brendan Lillis

Questions remain over Lillis release

Pete Baker on August 21, 2011, 7:38 pm

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Given the high-profile campaigning on the case, the Northern Ireland Parole Commissioners’ uncommon statement about their apparent u-turn in re-releasing on licence former Provisional IRA member, Brendan Lillis, fails to address concerns of political interference in that process. Here’s what the commissioners are reported to have said In a statement they said: “The Parole Commissioners have been tasked with making decisions about prisoners according to established procedures. “All decisions made by commissioners comply rigorously with these procedures and they have not departed from …

Brendan Lillis freed – despite David Ford’s ‘best professional advice’

Blank on August 18, 2011, 8:52 pm

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Brendan Lillis has been released from his detention without charge – despite the Life Sentence Review Commission and Justice Minister, David Ford, claiming his continuing detention was legitimate. Blank

David Ford: “as minister my decision has to be bound by the best professional advice I can be given.”

Pete Baker on August 4, 2011, 11:23 am

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Having met with various interested parties, and despite the advice from Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, the Northern Ireland Justice Minister, David Ford, has rejected calls to free former Provisional IRA member Brendan Lillis on compassionate grounds. From the BBC report Mr Ford said he had taken “an active interest” in the case and had sought additional independent medical advice. However, he said while it was within his power to free Mr Lillis, he had been advised that there were not sufficient grounds for …

McGuinness: “I trust that David Ford will take the right decision…”

Pete Baker on August 2, 2011, 7:27 pm

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Having interfered in an ongoing police investigation last week, this week the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, MP, MLA, doubles up by giving the NI Justice Minster, David Ford, some legal advice. From the BBC report “There can be no doubt that Brendan Lillis is seriously ill and does not represent a threat to anyone,” Mr McGuinness said. “The decision of the British Secretary of State Owen Paterson to revoke the licence of Brendan Lillis is …

Life Sentence Review Commission deny Brendan Lillis release

Pete Baker on July 26, 2011, 5:31 pm

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There’s an ongoing campaign for the release of former Provisional IRA member, Brendan Lillis, on compassionate grounds. But the BBC report that the Life Sentence Review Commission have just confirmed the Prison Service’s view that there were not sufficient grounds to justify his release. From the BBC report Republican prisoner Brendan Lillis will not be released on compassionate grounds, the Life Sentence Review Commission has decided. Mr Lillis, who suffers from a severe arthritic condition, was sentenced to life in 1977 on explosives …