{"id":4734,"date":"2013-03-18T10:35:34","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T10:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=4734"},"modified":"2021-03-11T19:27:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T19:27:49","slug":"twisting-facts-to-suit-british-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/18\/twisting-facts-to-suit-british-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Twisting Facts To Suit British Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

The article below highlights the state harassment of eirigi activist, Stephen Murney from Newry. Eirigi is a legal socialist republican organisation with members in both parts of Ireland. This article shows how the British state is determined to marginalise all criticism of its current Northern Ireland set-up, by going to elaborate lengths to create the illusion that any\u00a0criticism it objects to is\u00a0‘terrorist activity’.<\/p>\n

\"Demonstration
Demonstration in Newry in support of Stephen Murney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the morning\u00a0of February 21st<\/sup>, in Newry court-house, \u00e9ir\u00edg\u00ed activist Stephen Murney faced additional charges following his removal from Maghaberry prison by the PSNI the previous day and his subsequent detention at Antrim interrogation centre. Half an hour before the actual hearing, the court-room had been filled to capacity by Stephen’s family, friends and party comrades.<\/p>\n

These latest charges directly relate to other charges against Stephen and demonstrate an attempt by the PSNI and Six County prosecution service to bolster what is widely recognised as an already weak case solely initiated as a blatant and crude attempt at political censorship.<\/p>\n

The new charges included one relating to a single photograph, which Stephen has already been charged with possessing. On the basis, that having taken a photograph with which he had previously been charged with possessing last year, the prosecution now accused Stephen of \u201ccollecting information which may be of use to terrorists and possession of articles which may be of use to terrorists\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Additionally, Stephen was also charged with \u201caiding and abetting in criminal damage to property owned by persons unknown\u201d.<\/p>\n

To add to the sense of a dramatically imagined threat posed to the state by Stephen, and no to doubt influence those press reporters in the court-room, upwards of 30 boiler-suited and fully-armed members of the PSNI flooded into the court-house just before the hearing, taking up positions both inside and outside the actual court-room itself. More stood guard on the street outside.<\/p>\n

The state prosecution played up to this sense of dramatic and illusionary threat. The court was told that Stephen was \u201ca member of an Ireland-wide organisation with the capacity to facilitate safe passage out of the jurisdiction\u201d. The various photographs found on his computer seized during the PSNI raid on his home last November presented \u201can increased and severe threat to the PSNI\u201d. Photographs had been found, the court was informed, that were posted onto Facebook.<\/p>\n

Of course, the prosecution never referred to the fact that it had previously conceded in December last that the photographs had been taken openly and were of PSNI policing operations at legitimate public protests.<\/p>\n

No mention was made by the prosecution to the fact that the Ireland-wide organisation to which Stephen belongs is an open legitimate political party.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the prosecution made no mention of the fact that the charge of \u201caiding and abetting in criminal damage\u201d related simply to \u00e9ir\u00edg\u00ed party stencils found at Stephen\u2019s home. Nor was any reference made to the fact that the prosecution had ridiculously claimed at a previous hearing that these stencils were items, which \u201cmight be of use to terrorists\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Stephen\u2019s legal representative attempted to refute the prosecution\u2019s broad assertions, nevertheless the magistrate dutifully agreed to the prosecution demand that Stephen be held in custody on remand and denied him bail.<\/p>\n

Stephen Murney was sent back to his prison cell.<\/p>\n

His family, friends and party colleagues are determined to secure his release and to expose the corrupt and unjust nature of the Six County state.<\/p>\n

Over the coming weeks, there will be more protests and more pickets to highlight Stephen\u2019s unjust detention.<\/p>\n

The PSNI have chosen to bring these various charges against Stephen as a test-case, which if successful, will open the flood-gates for similar charges to be pressed against scores, if not hundreds, of political activists right across the Six Counties.<\/p>\n

The wider implications of such a scenario are immense.<\/p>\n

That is why this case must be defeated.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.eirigi.org\/latest\/latest210213_2.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The article below highlights the state harassment of eirigi activist, Stephen Murney from Newry. Eirigi is a legal socialist republican organisation with members in both parts of Ireland. This article shows how the British state is determined to marginalise all criticism of its current Northern Ireland set-up, by going to elaborate lengths to create the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1843,1858,1867,1873,1846,1876],"tags":[1231],"class_list":["post-4734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-capitalists-organise","category-oppression-liberation","category-emancipation-liberation-and-self-determination","category-against-unionism","category-british-imperialism","category-ireland-against-unionism","tag-author-eirigi"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":3740,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4734"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18453,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4734\/revisions\/18453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}