PTA Ruling (1)
01 January 1991
PTA Ruling
artdoc July=1993
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled by 22 votes to 4
that the UK government's derogation from the European Convention
for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is
valid because, as allowed for under article 15, the `life of the
nation' is threatened by the conflict over the national status
of the North of Ireland. Britain derogated from the European
Convention as long ago as 1957 with respect to Northern Ireland.
This was withdrawn in 1984 and, as a result, Northern Ireland was
no longer officially designated under the international
instruments as a territory where `a public emergency threatening
the life of the nation' exists. But after the Brogan case
concerning seven-day detention in 1988, a further derogation was
entered which left the question of whether Britain was justified
in doing this with reference to the circumstances pertaining in
Northern Ireland at the present time. This latest case
involved a judgement as to whether those circumstances were such
that the seven day detention power -particularly the failure to
subject the detention to judicial scrutiny `promptly', as
required by the Convention - was strictly necessary. Peter
Brannigan and Patrick McBride had been arrested under the PTA in
January 1989 and the Home Secretary had granted extensions of
their detention. They complained to the Court that they had not
been brought promptly before a judge. But the Court decided in
favour of the government that the independence of the judiciary
would be compromised if they were seen to be involved in the
granting of extensions of detention.
McBride did not live to hear the Court's verdict. He was one
of three people killed when RUC officer Allen Moore talked his
way into the Sinn Fein centre on the Falls Road, seeking an
`interview' with Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams. The inquest
into these deaths was held in May and was one of the largest on
record, involving the calling of 97 witnesses. It was revealed
at the inquest that Moore, who had shot and killed himself a few
hours after the three murders, had bomb-making materials in his
car and his bedroom. These consisted of copper piping, firework
gunpowder, flash cubes and shotgun cartridges. Small devices of
this nature, suitable for parcel bombs, had been sent to a number
of nationalists in autumn 1991. The revelation added weight to
the claim made by the Andersonstown News at the time of the
killings (4 February 1992) that someone who said they were in the
RUC phoned their offices about two hours afterwards. The caller
gave precise details of Moore's movements in the hours leading
up to the killings. He said Moore had fired shots over the grave
of a fellow RUC officer, Norman Spratt, the night before and that
both men were members of the Ulster Freedom Fighters. The
contents of Moore's suicide note were not revealed at the inquest
and the RUC have failed to publish their own inquiry into the
affair. The day of the killings, Moore was due to be part of the
guard protecting President Robinson on her visit to Belfast.
Statewatch vol 3 no 3 May-June 1993