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Phil McCullough
13 September 1997 --
A BELFAST man yesterday became the first person to mount a European court legal
challenge to an exclusion order made under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Fifty-one-year-old Phil McCullough, from Andersonstown, first served with the
order in 1977, is barred from entering England and faces a mandatory five year
prison sentence if he breaks the order. The order meant that Mr McCullough was
unable to attend the funeral of his father 10 years ago and is unable to visit
his 74-year old mother and other relatives in Leeds and Manchester. Mr
McCullough's solicitor Peter Madden and two barristers travelled this week to
the European court of human rights in Strasbourg for the hearing although a
verdict is not expected to be reached for some months. Mr McCullough is seeking
a declaration that his civil rights have been infringed by the making of the
order and is also seeking a ruling that he has been denied a fair and public
hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal by law. He claimed that he has
never been informed of the reason for the exclusion order and his solicitor
Peter Madden claims that this failure to pinpoint reasons could highlight a
miscarriage of justice. Mr Madden said: "My client could be the victim of a
20-year-long mistake but we can't prove that unless we know what grounds the
order is based upon. "What we are challenging in Strasbourg is the principle of
the order and the way in which the home office has dealt with the challenge." Mr
McCullough said he has been "picked on" because of his participation in the
civil rights movement and his association with republicans. He said: "What they
are doing is imposing internal exile just as they did in the old Soviet Union,
denying me freedom of movement. "I was offered a job in a saw mill in England
but can't do it because of this order." A former chairman of Saoirse - the
campaign for the release of paramilitary prisoners - Mr McCullough served an 18
month jail sentence in the 1960's for explosives offences but believes that that
is not the reason for his exclusion. "There are loads of people with convictions
far more serious than mine and the home office have never even mentioned my time
in jail. "All I want is to be able to travel to England to visit my mother who
has Alzheimer's and my brother who has Down's Syndrome. "But I am being denied
even that basic civil right."
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