Judge rules out McAliskey extradition
Reports obtained from:
(1) Irish Republican News, (2) BBC News
Friday, 23 November, 2007
Wednesday-Tuesday, 17-23 October, 2007
Wednesday, 4 July, 2007
Monday, 21 May, 2007
Judge rules out McAliskey extradition
By Irish Republican News
Roisin McAliskey will not be extradited, the Belfast Crown court said today.
McAliskey had been fighting efforts to send her to a German court over an IRA attack on a British army base in Osnabruck.
She was arrested at her home in Coalisland, County Tyrone, last May and was on bail. It was the second attempt by the British and German governments to secure her extradition after an international human rightds campaign defeated the first;
Her lawyers have argued that to extradite her would be an abuse of process as a previous application seven years ago was set aside on medical grounds.
A spokeswoman for the Northern Ireland Court Service said: "The Recorder of Belfast, Judge (Tom) Burgess, today refused an application to extradite Roisin McAliskey to Germany to face a charge of attempted murder on the basis that it would be oppressive because of the passage (of) time."
Speaking to journalists, Roisin`s mother, Bernadette McAliskey, said the family was happy with the outcome.
"We're glad to be out of that nightmare and start again putting lives -and children`s lives- that have been on hold back together again," she said.
"I should certainly record that the manner in which the judge respected the sensitive issues around the impact on Roisin's health and the impact on the children was very much appreciated and not something we would have been used to in the past 40 years."
Sinn Fein Mid Ulster MP Martin McGuinness has welcomed the decision to end the extradition proceedings against Roisin McAliskey.
"I welcome this decision. It was the right one," he said.
"These extradition proceedings should never have brought in the first place given the legal precedence in the case.
"This should now be the end of this matter and Rosin should be allowed to get on with her life."
Copyright © Irish Republican News 2007
Wednesday-Tuesday, 17-23 October, 2007
McAliskey testifies in daughter's extradition case
By Irish Republican News
Former MP Bernadette McAliskey told a court yesterday that she could never see her daughter Roisin allowing herself to be extradited to Germany to stand trial for an alleged IRA attack on a British Army base in 1996.
Mrs McAliskey said her daughter still suffered from the trauma of being in the family home at Coalisland, County Tyrone, during an assassination attempt by unionist paramilitary gunmen in 1981.
"My daughter will never walk up the steps of a plane to go to Germany, ever, ever," Mrs McAliskey said at the Recorder's Court in Belfast.
Fighting back tears, Mrs McAliskey said: "If she is forcibly taken there she will not cooperate. She will roll up in a ball and die and I can't stop her doing that."
Mrs McAliskey - the former Mid-Ulster MP Bernadette Devlin - was opposing an extradition application by the German authorities - the second in 11 years.
Her daughter Roisin was arrested last May when she was released on bail and was not in court for the opening of the application to extradite her.
The original case was abandoned in 2000 after then British Home Secretary Jack Straw ruled that there was no case for the 35-year-old to answer.
Roisin gave birth to her daughter, Loinnir, in the course of a harrowing prison experience during the first extradition bid.
Mrs McAliskey said Roisin was aged nine when sectarian gunmen tried to kill her and her husband.
"She was the eldest of the three children and suffered the most traumatic effect," she said.
"She had an over-riding fear they would come back. She kept having panic attacks and often went to bed with her clothes on, maybe out of fear she should have to get up quickly.
"I don't think I have been able to have a rational conversation with my daughter since then."
She said Roisin appeared to be on "automatic pilot" following her arrest last May.
Leading English civil rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, who appeared for Ms McAliskey six years ago, said inquiries had established that Ms McAliskey could not have been in Germany at the time of the IRA attack.
Ms Pierce gave evidence that the McAliskey suffered abuse in Castlereagh RUC station in 1998 and later in Belmarsh High Security Prison in England.
Copyright © Irish Republican News 2007
Friends of Róisín McAliskey Website
Friends of Róisín McAliskey is the official campaign website to stop the Extradition of Róisín
Róisín McAliskey is a 35 year old mother of two children aged ten and two. She is the daughter of Civil Rights activist and former MP Bernadette McAliskey. Róisín has been involved in community development work for nearly 20 years. She currently works with vulnerable young adults and survivors of trauma and conflict.
Róisín was arrested in 1996 in relation to a mortar bomb attack carried out by the Irish Republican Army on a British Army base in Osnabruck, Germany. Róisín was at home in Ireland at the time of the attack. Within a few months of the attack a principal prosecution witness was unable to identify her from a recent photograph. There was also controversy over evidence gathered by German authorities.
Despite this Róisín was flown to London and detained for over a year but was never charged with any offence. Although pregnant at the time of her arrest in 1996 Róisín was categorised as a Category A prisoner and held in Holloway Women’s Prison, before being transferred to the high security all male prison at Belmarsh.
The detention of Róisín McAliskey was recognised by Amnesty International as “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”
For Amnesty's Report on the detention of Róisín please click on link below: web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR450081997?open&of=ENG-2U3
In 1998 the then British Home Secretary Jack Straw refused the extradition of Róisín on the grounds that it would be “unjust and oppressive” and Róisín returned home to Ireland.
On 21 May 2007 officers from PSNI, C.I.D and European Mutual Assistance Unit sealed off access to the Cul-de-Sac where Róisín lives with her two young children, and arrested her at 8.12am.
We ask you to visit the website, and when you have read the content and understand the Situation, please join us in our campaign.
www.friendsofroisinmcaliskey.info
Flash: Roisin McAliskey arrested
By Irish Republican News
Roisin McAliskey has been arrested on foot of a new extradition bid by Germany.
Roisin, a mother of two, appeared before a Belfast court after being arrested at her home in Coalisland, County Tyrone, on a European arrest warrant.
Her own mother, the former Mid-Ulster MP and Catholic civil rights campaigner Bernadette McAliskey, listened from the public gallery as the court was told how the warrant was eight months old but was only new being acted upon.
It is the second time Germany has attempted to have Roisin extradited over the 1996 IRA attack which injured no-one but caused extensive damage to the base.
On the first extradition attempt, in 1998, Roisin had been pregnant at the time. Her cruel and inhuman treatment in English jails provoked an international outcry and has been blamed for causing her to develop mental illness.
Roisin has always protested her innocence and the evidence presented against her has already been comprehensively discredited.
Roisin and her mother left court flanked by friends without making any comment. She will appear again for the extradition hearing on June 6.
Defence lawwyers questioned the eight-month delay in effecting the arrest. In recent months, her mother has again questioned the direction and integrity of current peace efforts.
Outside the court, Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein MP for Mid-Ulster, urged the German authorities to drop their extradition proceedings.
He said: "Over 10 years ago these matters had a more than adequate hearing in a succession of British courts.
"The arrest this morning of Roisin on the foot of an extradition request from German prosecutors will be seen by many as petty and vindictive."
Mr McGuinness, Deputy First Minister at the North's new power-sharing Assembly, pointed out that she has always maintained her innocence.
He added: "Roisin McAliskey is the mother of two young children and she has lived openly in her home town in the 10 years since her release from prison in England the last time the German authorities threatened to have her extradited.
"The German authorities should take note of the tremendous progress we have achieved in Ireland in the course of recent years and immediately drop the demand for Roisin's extradition and allow her to return home immediately to her young family."
Copyright © Irish Republican News 2007
McAliskey bailed over extradition
By BBC News
The daughter of a former MP has been released on bail pending an extradition hearing over an IRA bomb attack on a British army base in Germany.
Roisin McAliskey, 35, was detained in Coalisland, County Tyrone, on a European arrest warrant.
German authorities want to charge her over an IRA mortar bomb attack on an Army barracks at Osnabruck in 1996.
Ms McAliskey, the daughter of former Mid-Ulster MP Bernadette McAliskey, faced a similar action in 1998.
On Monday, Belfast Recorders Court was told that the German authorities issued a warrant for her arrest in October last year.
Ms McAliskey will appear in court again next month to face an extradition hearing and was released on bail of Ł2,500.
In 1998, the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, decided at that time that she was too ill to be extradited.
She was pregnant at the time and was held in a special unit in Holloway prison.
At the time, the German attorney general said Ms McAliskey was still regarded as a suspect and called on the British government to take over the prosecution.
But two years later, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough evidence for her to face trial in the United Kingdom.
Police officers, including detectives from the Extradition and International Mutual Assistance Unit, were involved in the operation to arrest her on Monday.
Copyright © BBC News 2007