BBC Spotlight on Political Internment Martin Corey

Statement from Release Martin Corey Campaign

The Spotlight Programme screened on Tuesday, November 12 was, in part, concerned with the case of political internee Martin Corey. Ciaran Tracey, Journalist for the BBC, visited Martin in Maghaberry prison, Co Antrim and conducted an interview with him. During the course of this interview Martin stated that he believed that he was in jail because he refused to become an informer, he stated he had been approached prior to his incarceration and told that he should co-operate with the security forces or else he would find himself in jail.

And that is where Martin Corey found himself, in Maghaberry Jail, he has been there for over three-and-half-years. He faces no charge and no trial, he has no release date, his release had previously been directed by the courts but then overturned by the British secretary of state. Three British secretaries of state have allowed Martin's internment to continue with secret evidence quoted as justification for this.

This blatant disregard for the judicial system exposes the true nature of British rule in Ireland and how it serves to persecute political dissenters. It is now time that Martin Corey is released once and for all with no interference from un-elected British officials who seek to protect those who recruit informers and put Irish citizen’s lives in danger on a daily basis. 

On Monday, November 11 and Tuesday, November 12, the Release Marin Corey Campaign loosely organised an attempt to highlight Martins case on social networking site Twitter. The result was overwhelming and exceeded expectations throughout the course of those two days. Republicans and human rights defenders continuously tweeted #releasemartincorey and due to their hard work this trended at number two on Monday (November 11) and number 1 on Tuesday (November 12) in Ireland. The committee would like to thank all those who took part and congratulate you on your success.

We are weeks away from knowing the outcome of Martin's case but we must not now sit back think that here is no more to done, we must keep the pressure on. In September Human rights organisation, Justice Watch Ireland released a report on their findings into the incarceration of Martin Corey. A full copy of this report has now been published onwww.releasemartincorey.com

The Release Martin Corey Campaign once again reiterates its demand for the release of Martin Corey, who is in jail solely for his political views. The British Government and their security must not be allowed to continue down this path of political persecution unchallenged.

Posted in: Internment,Martin Corey

WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS Ambassador Haass and Dr. O’Sullivan : End Internment

http://panelofpartiesnie.com/

sample copy of submission

http://panelofpartiesnie.com/submissions/

CALL FOR WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS

Ambassador Haass and Dr. O’Sullivan recognise the diversity of opinion and the wide array of individuals and groups in civil society who can make a valuable contribution to this process. They are dedicated to conducting a process that is as inclusive as possible and will meet with as many stakeholders as possible during their visits to Northern Ireland. Given limited time before the December deadline, however, they welcome the written submissions of all interested parties.

Any individual, group, or organisation is welcome to send a submission to the Panel of Parties in the NI Executive. The Panel will treat all submissions as confidential throughout the process. At the end of the process, the chair and vice chair may seek the permission of some groups to make public their submissions; this will only be done with explicit permission.  

Submissions can take any focus, although the Panel will draw the greatest value from ones that provide both background needed to understand the complexities of the issues and specific recommendations on any or all of the three issues for which the panel has an express mandate: parades and protests; flags, symbols and emblems, and related matters; and the past. Submissions will be received throughout the process, but the Panel urges those interested in making a submission to do so by 27 September. All submissions should be sent via this website or by email, ideally with clear contact information attached.

For other comments and queries, please write to info@panelofpartiesnie.com. Members of the media can contact the Panel at press@panelofpartiesnie.com. 

 Ambassador Haass and Dr. O’Sullivan,

Welcome to Ireland

I have been campaigning on several human rights issues with a view to justice, which is an essential element of  long term Peace Regretfully I have to inform you at 61 years of age, after a lifetime dealing directly with the issues and people involved, that it is only with a basic form of justice will there be any long term peace in Ireland. I ask that you bring your attention to the issue of internment without trial in Ireland, which has plagued every generation in Ireland since the foundation of the two neo-colonial states.

Annie Machon MI5

 A Peace Process Without Due Process is Oxymoronic. With regard to British Occupied Ireland a former MI5 British Secret Service agent has explained it best, in an article she wrote in the Huffington Post. It is a long article so I will quote the parts relevant to the failing Peace Process in Ireland.

Gestapo Courts

The concept of secret courts emerged from the official UK spook sector - MI5 and MI6 have been lobbying hard for such protection over recent years. Their argument revolves around a number of civil cases, where British victims of extraordinary rendition and subsequent torture have sued the pants off the spies through civil courts and received some recompense for their years of suffering.

The spies' argument is that having to produce evidence in their own defence would damage that ever-flexible but curiously vague concept of "national security".

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?

The spooks have traditionally used the "national security" argument as the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card. It has never been legally defined, but it is unfailingly effective with judges and politicians.

Suspects are scooped up and interned in high security British prisons on the say-so of faceless intelligence officers. No evidence needed to be adduced, nor can it be challenged. The subsequent control order system is equally Kafkaesque.

That's not to say that certain interned individuals might not have been an active threat to the UK. However, in the "good" old days suspects would have had evidence gathered against them, been tried by a jury, convicted and imprisoned. The system was never perfect and evidence could be egregiously withheld, but at least appeals were possible, most notably in the case of the Birmingham Six.

All these historic common law principles seem to have been jettisoned with the enshrinement of "secret courts" they are already being used in the UK - the Special Immigration Appeal Commission (SIAC) tribunals hear secret evidence and the defendant's chosen lawyer is not allowed to attend. Instead a special, government-approved advocate is appointed to "represent the interests" of the defendant who is not allowed to know what his accusers have to say. And there was no appeal.

But all this is so unnecessary. The powers are already in place to be used (and abused) to shroud our notionally open court process in secrecy. Judges can exclude the press and the public from court rooms by declaring the session in camera for all or part of the proceedings. Plus, in national security cases, government ministers can also issue Public Interest Immunity Certificates (PIIs) that not only bar the press from reporting the proceedings, but can also ban them from reporting they are gagged - the governmental super-injunction.

So the powers already exist to protect "national security". No, the real point of the new secret courts is to ensure that the defendant and, particularly in my view, their chosen lawyers cannot hear the allegations if based on intelligence of any kind. Yet even the spies themselves agree that the only type of intelligence that really needs to be kept secret involves ongoing operations, agent names, and sensitive operational techniques.

And as for the right to be tried by a jury of your peers - forget it. Of course juries will have no place in such secret courts. The only time we have seen such draconian judicial measures in the UK outside a time of official war was during the Troubles in Northern Ireland - the infamous Diplock Courts - beginning in the 1970s and which incredibly were still in use this year.

As a former MI5 intelligence officer, I am not an apologist of terrorism although I can understand the social injustice that can lead to it. However, I'm also very aware that the threat can be artificially ramped up and manipulated to achieve preconceived political goals.

I would suggest that the concept of secret courts will prove fatally dangerous to our democracy. It may start with the concept of getting the Big Bad Terrorist, but in more politically unstable or stringent economic times this concept is wide open to mission creep.

We are already seeing a slide towards expanding the definition of "terrorist" to include "domestic extremists", activists, single issue campaigners et al, as I have written before. And just recently information was leaked about a new public-private EU initiative, Clean IT, that proposes ever more invasive and draconian policing powers to hunt down "terrorists" on the internet. This proposal fails to define terrorism, but does provide for endemic electronic surveillance of the EU. Pure corporatism.

Allowing secret courts to try people on the say-so of a shadowy, unaccountable and burgeoning spy community lands us straight back in the pages of history: La Terreur of revolutionary France, the creepy surveillance of the Stasi, or the disappearances and torture of the Gestapo.

Have we learned nothing?

Is mise le meas,

brionOclerigh

http://www.releasemartincorey.com

RICHARD N. HAASS

Dr. Richard Haass is president of the Council on Foreign Relations, the preeminent independent, nonpartisan organisation in the United States dedicated to the study of American foreign policy. Until 2003, Dr. Haass was director of policy planning for the Department of State as well as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and U.S. envoy to the Northern Ireland peace process. He was also special assistant to President George H.W. Bush and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council from 1989 to 1993. Dr. Haass is the author or editor of twelve books on American foreign policy and one book on management. His most recent book is Foreign Policy Begins at Home: The Case for Putting America's House in Order. A Rhodes scholar, he holds a BA from Oberlin College and both Master and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Oxford University. He has received honorary degrees from Hamilton College, Franklin & Marshall College, Georgetown University, Oberlin College, Central College, and Miami Dade College.

MEGHAN L. O'SULLIVAN

Dr. Meghan L. O’Sullivan is the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. Between 2004 and 2007, she was special assistant to President George W. Bush and also held the position of Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan from 2005 until the end of her tenure at the National Security Council. She spent a cumulative two years in Iraq throughout 2003-2008. Before this time, Dr. O’Sullivan was a member of the Policy Planning staff at the State Department and the chief advisor to the U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland, Richard N. Haass, from 2001-2003. She is also currently an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a consultant to the National Intelligence Council, and a strategic advisor to Hess Corporation.  Dr. O’Sullivan is a foreign affairs columnist for Bloomberg View as well as a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Aspen Strategy Group.  Dr. O’Sullivan serves on the board of the German Marshall Fund, TechnoServe, and the Women’s Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute. She has been awarded the Defense Department's highest honor for civilians, the Distinguished Public Service Medal, and three times been awarded the State Department's Superior Honor Award.  She has written numerous books and articles on American foreign policy.  In 2008, Esquire named her one of the most influential people of the century. Dr. O'Sullivan received a B.A. from Georgetown University and a masters and doctorate from Oxford University.

MI5 MASSACRE AGENTS RELEASED ON INTERNED BIRTHDAY OF MARTIN COREY 63

The proof that Britain's Secret Services MI5 in British Occupied ireland, are hell bent on undermining the Irish Peace Process, can be found in the contrasting treatment of Orange Order Loyalist Stephen Irwin, perpetrator of the Greysteel Massacre and the internment without charge or trial of traditional irish Republican, Martin Corey. If the Irish Peace Process works, MI5 will be out of their multi-million pound, State of the Art Palace Barracks in Holywood, County Down, minus their multi million pound budget, the prize of their turf wars with competing Secret Service MI6.

Releasing a loyalist mass murderer early, to do so some more of their British State Terrorism, dirty work, coupled with provoking republicans, with the injustice of their internment without charge, trial and prejudiced secret evidence against Martin Corey, is precisely the same injustice, that fuelled the conflict for more than the last 40 years. As every interdenominational mongrel on an Irish street knows, enduring peace with such provocative injustice, is simply impossible

Orange Order mass murderer Stephen Irwin has been freed again from prison, for the second time, just before the 20th anniversary of his Greysteel massacre. Irwin 40 was released previously under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement but was imprisoned again 8 years ago, for visciously slashing a fellow football fan at a soccer match with a knife. He was told at that time, he would have to serve out his full sentence, for the eight murders at the Rising Sun Bar massacre. He was granted early release last week by the parole board and walked out of prison after commissioners ruled his release immediately. East Derry's John Dallat one of the very few Members of Stormont Parlaiment {SDLP MLA} who is not compromised to the British Secret Services, described it as “unbelievably insensitive” coming so soon, before the anniversary of the Greysteel massacre.


John said: “This will only fuel the widely-held belief that Irwin and his fellow killer Torrens Knight were and most likely still are on the payroll of British Secret Servic MI5 and that that affords them the kid glove treatment.I have it on excellent authority from a well placed source that both Irwin and Knight were agents and met their MI5 handlers at Ebrington and Shackleton Barracks when they were in operation.


People are not stupid and they know there are many unanswered questions about the Greysteel slaughter and the killing of four men in Castlerock earlier the same year that Torrens Knight also committed using the same weapon.Those questions will only be answered if an independent inquiry is held and access is given to files on Irwin and Knight.I am sure the relatives of those murdered and maimed in Greysteel 20 years ago will be sickened as I am that someone who was clearly unbelievably insensitive thought it was a good time to put this killer back on the streets.”


Sentence Review Commissioners contacted declined to comment. This purports to be Due Process in Peace Process Ireland, when on October 30, 1993, Stephen Irwin, Torrens Knight, Geoffrey Deeney and Brian McNeill, all fellow Orange Order members, went into the Rising Sun Bar in Greysteel armed.They massacred eight people, six Catholics and two Protestants. The victims were: John Burns, Moira Duddy, Joe McDermott, Victor Montgomery, James Moore, John Moyne, Stephen Mullan and Karen Thompson. One of the gang after release stated, his only regret, was that he didn't kill more. Irwin was given eight life sentences but was released after just a few years under the Good Friday Agreement.


Martiin Corey was born in the "Murder Triangle" of British Occupied Ireland and saw first hand the sectarian work of the"Glenanne gang." From being a teenage vigilante protecting his community, he volunteered for the IRA, the only defence his community had at 19. The name "Glenanne gang" is derived from a farm at Glenanne near Markethill, County Armagh, used as the Orange Order gang's arms dump and bomb-factory.Most of the Glenanne gang's attacks took place in parts of County Armagh and mid-Ulster, which later became known as the "murder triangle." The Orange Order loyalist extremists carried out sectarian attacks, from the beginning of the 1970s on a sectarian basis, against Irish Catholics, in a violent campaign, that eventually provoked a tit for tat reaction. Commanded by British Military Intelligence and RUC Special Branch, they also carried out attacks all over Ireland.


This gang of British State terrorists, included soldiers in the British Army, its Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), British Police in the form of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) some Ulster Defence Association (UDA) members. Former members alleged they were commanded from London and the one common bond, everyone belonged in the Orange order. The Pat Finucane Centre has listed 87 murders, as the crimes of the Glenanne gang, which includes the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the Miami murders and the Reavey and O'Dowd murders. A sworn affidavit in the 2003 Barron Report by Glenanne gang member and RUC Special Patrol Group officer John Weir confirms this. The RUC Special Patrol Group, a specialised police unit tasked with counter-terrorism was instead engaged in sectarian murders


It is important to understand this background, in the context of Martin Corey volunteering to join the IRA and be the only protector of his totally defenceless community in Lurgan, being systematically murdered by British State terrorism and the later disbanded paramilitary police of the RUC. Martin was found guilty of shooting two of them in an IRA ambush almost 40 years ago. He served almost 20 years and was released unconditionally at that time. This then is the background to a heavily censored discussion on why Martin is interned almost 4 years again without charge and without trial.The censored debate in the pensive quill, followed an opening piece from Jim McIlMurray afriend of Martin's, on the the continued internment of Martin Corey' on hi s63rd birthday which went as follows:


" September 2, 2013, is the 63rd birthday of Martin Corey.


Today is also the date the Parole Commissioners were to commence Martin’s annual Parole hearing. We received communication on Friday, the 30th of August, informing us that this open hearing to review Martin’s ongoing detention would not commence on this date, with no alternative date being suggested or discussed with us.

Martin is entitled by law to an annual Parole hearing, and yet he has not received one in over two years.
A variety of reasons have been given for the delay, including blaming Martin himself for his "legal challenges" against his detention under Article 5 (4) (the right to have a court decide the lawfulness of his detention under the European convention of Human Rights).

Recent violations of Human Rights in the Middle East have received worldwide condemnation, including by the British government who stated that they 'will continue to play an active and forthright role in international institutions that promote and protect human rights.' They also emphasised the UK’s own commitment to strengthen human rights, both domestically and internationally.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2012 that it was unacceptable to deny an annual parole hearing to anyone held in custody. This ruling ollowed a case of a man who waited 14 months for a parole hearing. Martin Corey has now waited 25 months.

The Secretary of State in a recent communication stated, 'an individual who served a life sentence
can be returned to prison if they pose a risk to the public or commits further offences.' Since Martin’s arrest in April 2010, he has never been charged with a crime, questioned by police regarding a crime, or given any explanation as to the risk he poses to the public.

Martin served 19 years in prison prior to his release in 1992. He has now served the equivalent of a
seven year sentence since his arrest in 2010.

Martin has not committed any crime. He poses no risk to the public and I am calling for his immediate release today.

I spoke with Martin this morning and he wishes to express his gratitude to those who sent messages and cards and also for their continued support in highlighting the ongoing injustice perpetrated upon him by
the British government.



Posted in: Martin Corey






   











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10 comments:



Pauline says:


10:06 AM, September 02, 2013Reply



Martin Corey is a name that pops into my head almost daily. I can't understand why there isn't more of an outcry outside of the campaign for him. The man is held at the whim of a politician with no mandate in north on alleged advice from the parole commission that she employs and if she so chooses can dismiss. Held on the strength of evidence that neither he nor his legal team are give access to, which begs the fundamental question, how do you challenge what you can't see?

In England MPs have spoken out against the use of 'closed material' branding it the product of Tyrants and repressive regimes. This puts a question mark over the attitude of the Stormont Executive's position on the use of closed material evidence, and I believe that the parties and MLAs in Stormont whether holding ministerial positions or not should clarify their individual and party position on the use of such draconian measures. I would urge all interested parties to write to their MLA's and ask them do they support the use of closed material evidence and if not what they are doing about it?

A very dangerous precedent has been set here!







AM says:


10:45 AM, September 02, 2013Reply



The PSNI probably have it in for him given the conviction he has for killing two of their colleagues. They are getting their revenge because they can.

Now, that might be understandable in terms of sheer human emotions. But if human emotions hold a veto over what goes on in society, there would never be any progress, the jails would be packed and we would probably have the death penalty for offences considered trivial by modern era standards.

Martin Corey is being held for what a court said he did in the 1970s - for which he has served his time - not for anything a court said he has done in recent years. He is being held at the whim of a politician - political policing par excellence.



itsjustmacker says:


3:13 PM, September 02, 2013Reply



Firstly , Birthday Greetings to Martin , I have intentionally omitted "Happy".

Martin is being held on secret evidence , It stems from the HET/ex RUC Special Branch and MI5 ,That's the Brits way of getting their own way. Every Ex pow should be out onto the street enforce demanding his release , lest they forget , He is still a comrade. As Anthony stated, Martin served his time , How many ex RUC murderers are going to be arrested under the secret evidence scam, Dare I say it , "NONE" , nor , any Murdering British Soldier. Its heart rendering to say the least, so called ex comrades allowing a 63 year old pensioner still interned and they do nothing about it, I hope some of them, especially in the Fellons club are reading this and I hope they die in shame.



Fionnuala Perry says:


1:42 PM, September 03, 2013Reply



What happened to putting manners on the Brits?
Last night we went as a family to watch a play written by Rosaleen Watson about the short life and tragic death of Tom Williams.
Throughout the short and very moving drama there was an atmosphere of shock and disbelief that something as horrendous as Tom's eventual murder took place.
There was an atmosphere of past- tense, an atmosphere of having moved away from these awful times.There was almost a feeling of detachment an invisible line drawn to distinguish past from present.
I wondered as I left the prison was I the only person there who felt, all these years later nothing has changed they would hang us all over again if they could? Who knows?



itsjustmacker says:


4:16 PM, September 03, 2013Reply



Fionnuala:

"as I left the prison was I the only person there who felt, all these years later nothing has changed they would hang us all over again if they could?"

They wouldn't take a millisecond to hesitate.



Pauline says:


7:22 PM, September 03, 2013Reply



My husband's grandfather was interned in Crumlin Road Gaol with Tom Williams at the time he was executed. My husband would often remark that his grandfather never spoke of it, such was the impact it had on him. Any time the name of Tom Williams comes up you can be sure my husband will be muttering the following passage from Tom Williams' letter to Hugh McAteer. As he was reading this thread earlier he went into it!

''But shall we make the mistake of '21? no, no, tis men like you and your staff will see to it. That no farcical so called Treaty shall in no way be signed by a bunch of weak-kneed and willed Irishmen. Better that the waves of the mighty oceans sweep over Erin than take and divide our nation, murder her true sons again. Better would be that heavens would open and send fire to destroy Erin, than to
accept another Treaty like it''

Another point of interest is that Paddy McGrory the father of the current DPP was actually taking a case to Europe over the internment of my husbands grandfather and others around 1958, I think, how times have changed you definitely couldn't say like father like son.



Maitiu Connel says:


9:11 PM, September 03, 2013Reply



I simply find this a crime against human rights. At the weekend I was researching through a few articles / writings about loyalism and part of my results included recent UTV and BBC articles in which they stated openly, the names of well known UDA men and that they were leaders. The same man who openly speaks from time to time on the news with the title " UDA leader " under his name. How can these people be publicly named as leaders of an illegal terrorist group and never face arrest. Today we have 5 supposed PIRA men being charged with membership from 1997 - 2000. We watched Marian Price spend years in prison there for holding a piece of paper. It seems MI5 love to turn a blind eye to it's operators whilst still the Irish suffer.



frankie says:


10:56 PM, September 03, 2013Reply



I think you hit the nail on the head Anthony...Pure and simple bitterness.

Judges can't find a reason to hold him, cops aren't interested.

Unless, as several posters have mentioned before they (powers that be) are simply testing the water to see how far they can push the boundaries..



itsjustmacker says:


12:20 AM, September 04, 2013Reply



Maitiu Connel:

Those five are out on £250 bail , They are SF, That's unheard off in Nationalists terms, not that I would want to see them being remanded , I am just making a point , Its the same on both sides of the divide, Its not what you know , its who you know , but , there is more to this case than just being accused of being a member of PIRA.

Frankie:

I have always stated that. They are pushing as far as they want now because they won't bang up any Pro treaties. I was well pleased on the Anti Internment March , all the banners of those still Interned , Also those of Michael Campbell, and of course those of Martin Corey.



Snowtorch says:


9:05 AM, September 04, 2013Reply



If Shinners such as Padraig Wilson support the British rule of law then I'm sure he would have no problem facing due process and taking a spell on remand, after all Sinn Fein are fond of due process. However I think what's keeping them off remand is that Padraig Wilson had requested to go on the republican wing when it was looking like he was going to be locked up a few months ago. Now that wouldn't look to well for the shinners one of their leading members requesting to be housed with those they have condemned as criminals and traitors."





#ReleaseMartinCorey

END INTERNMENT NOW MARCH BELFAST