SINN FÉIN LEADER Gerry Adams says the Government should appeal for the European Court of Human Rights to reopen the 1970s case alleging torture by the British State against the so-called ‘Hooded Men’.
It follows the broadcast of an RTÉ Prime Time documentary last night showing how torture methods used during internment in 1971 were sanctioned by the British Government.
The programme highlighted the link from 1970s Northern Ireland to the use of torture by the USA and Britain in more recent times, in particular in Iraq where the so-called’ ‘five techniques’ were used.
The five techniques in question were:
The documentary also revealed how Britain withheld key evidence from the European Commission on Human Rights and European Court of Human Rights about the effects of the torture on 14 Northern Irish men who were arrested during internment and removed for special “in-depth interrogation”.
In 1976, the European Commission on Human Rights found the treatment was torture —but two years later, the European Court of Human Rights found that although the techniques were inhuman and degrading treatment, they did not constitute torture.
In a statement this morning, Adams said that the new research from RTÉ and the Pat Finucance centre showed that the British Government lied to the ECHR “on the severity of the methods used on the men; their long term physical and psychological consequences; on where these interrogations took place and who gave the political authority and clearance for it to occur”.
“Not only was the European Court misled and lied to by the British government but so too was the Irish government,” Adams said.
“The onus is now on the Irish government to challenge the British government on these matters and to request that the European Court of Human Rights reopen the case of Ireland v the United Kingdom.”
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