50 I PRIGIONIERI REPUBBLICANI ANCORA IN CARCERE

Sono passati dieci anni da quando nel 1998 vennero aperte le porte del Maze ai detenuti repubblicani e lealisti nel rispetto di quanto stabilito dall’Accordo del Venerdì Santo (Good Friday Agreement n.d.r.).
Ad oggi sono circa 50 i detenuti ancora rinchiusi nelle carceri sia in Irlanda del Nord, che nella Repubblica di Irlanda.
31 si trovano in una sezione separta del carcere di Maghaberry. Quasi tutti appartenenti alla Continuity IRA ed alcuni affiliati alla Real IRA. L’unico di questi ad aver usufruito della scarcerazione fu John Brady originario di Strabane. Rilasciato nel 1998, venne arrestato nuovamente nel 2004 e successivamente scarcerato sulla base dell’inattendibilità della prova del DNA. Questo non ha significato la libertà per John brady, in quanto ora si trova a dover scontare un condanna all’ergastolo precedente.
Nel carcere di Portlaoise Co Laois, la stragrande maggioranza dei detenuti repubblicani sono affiliati al Real IRA, di cui un nome di spicco è Michael McKevitt.
Ci sono otto prigionieri appartenenti all’INLA a Portlaoise, la maggior parte in custodia preventiva in attesa di processo per accuse che vanno dal appartenenza all’organizzazione, al possesso di armi.
Infine sono 2 i prigionieri che si trovano al di fuori del territorio irlandese. Michael Campbell (36) originario di Dundalk, è stato arrestato in Lituania perchè sospettato di acquistare armi da fuoco ed esplosivi per la Real IRA.
Noel Maguire, condannato insieme ad altri quattro uomini per attentati della Real IRA a Londra e sta scontando una condanna di 22 anni in un carcere nel Cambridgeshire (Regno Unito).
All’inizio di questo mese il ministro della giustizia irlandese Dermot Ahern, rifiutato l’eenesima richiesta avanzata da Maguire per il trasferimento di Portlaoise, dicendo che egli non è riuscito a dimostrare di avere legami familiari nel Paese.

50 republicans still in prison - Dissident violence has to stop
History was made in 1998 when the gates of the Maze prison opened and republican and loyalist inmates were freed under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
But 10 years on from their early release – agreed as part of efforts to consign the Troubles to history – there are around 50 republican prisoners in jails north and south of the border.
Maghaberry jail has 31 inmates housed in its republican ‘separated’ unit.
The only one to have had his early release licence revoked is John Brady from Strabane.
Released from the Maze in 1998 after serving seven years for the murder of RUC reservist David Black in 1989, he was arrested in 2004 and charged with allegedly attempting to kill a part-time RIR soldier two years earlier.
The charge was later dropped by the Public Prosecution Service, which had been due to rely on controversial ‘low copy number’ DNA evidence but he remains in jail for the previous life sentence.
The majority of republican prisoners in Maghaberry are affiliated with Continuity IRA, with a handful of Real IRA prisoners also held on the wing.
Also in Maghaberry are two of the four men convicted of the Provisional IRA kidnapping of veteran republican Bobby Tohill in 2004.
Tommy Tolan and Gerard McCrory, both from west Belfast, handed themselves in to police in January 2007 after a period of being unlawfully at large.
In Portlaoise prison in Co Laois, the vast majority of republican inmates are affiliated to the Real IRA.
The most high-profile of these is Michael McKevitt, serving a 20-year jail term for directing terrorism. One of the founding members of the Real IRA, the veteran republican has since turned his back on his former associates.
There are eight alleged INLA prisoners in Portlaoise, the majority on remand awaiting trial for charges ranging from membership of the organisation to possession of weapons.
Armagh man Declan Duffy is among them, having been arrested earlier this year and charged with membership.
West Belfast man Gerard Mackin has also been in Portlaoise and is now on trial in Dublin’s Special Criminal Court charged with the murder of Eddie Burns in the city in March last year.
Two other republican prisoners are being held in jails outside of Ireland.
Dundalk man Michael Campbell (36) is being detained in Lithuania on suspicion of buying firearms and explosives for the Real IRA.
The last republican prisoner in England, Noel Maguire, was convicted along with four other men for a Real IRA bombing campaign and is serving 22 years in a prison in Cambridgeshire.
Earlier this month the Republic’s justice minister Dermot Ahern turned down a request by Maguire for transfer to Portlaoise, saying he had failed to prove he has family links in the jurisdiction.

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