Press Release
08 December 2005 --
Ciarán
Shiels of Madden & Finucane representing the Sinn Féin Head
of Administration at Stormont, Dennis Donaldson, and the civil
servant, William Mackessy said today:
“This
morning not guilty verdicts were entered in respect of all the
charges in relation to all of our clients. Since October 2002
our clients have had extremely serious charges hanging over
them. Both of them vehemently denied the allegations against
them. Their arrests had not only serious consequences for
themselves and their families but also for the wider community
in the sense that their arrests led to the fall of the
Power-Sharing Executive at Stormont. Our clients are of the
clear view that they were victims of a political operation by
elements within the Security Forces who deliberately used their
position to hamper political progress in this country.
Even
when our clients were being questioned in custody it became
clear, through the media that the lawyers were not being
provided with the entire picture in relation to this matter.
There was evidence that there were three and possibly four
different Security Force Operations involved in this case.
In
particular, we learned on 12th November 2002 that
there was a now notorious Special Branch operation known as
“Operation Torsion” which was designed to incriminate
Republicans. Its details did not feature once in any of the
thousands of pages of documents were eventually served on us by
the DPP. According to informed sources, this operation involved
house break-ins, widespread bugging and the use of at least one
Police Agent Provocateur.
Madden
& Finucane requested on 1st April 2004 all
material arising out of or in connection with Operation Torsion.
We also wanted to know who authorized this operation. When
nothing was disclosed and the DPP gave notice that a Public
Interest Immunity (PII) gagging order was to be asserted in
relation to the case, we made submissions that without prejudice
to the fact we should have access to this material, the court
should give consideration to appointing a Special Independent
Counsel to consider all of the sensitive material and advise the
Court on matters of disclosure.
The
Court agreed with this submission and, for the first time in
this jurisdiction, a Special Independent Counsel was appointed
early this year. After completing his task this summer, the
court ordered that the Crown consider its position three weeks
ago. Today the Crown formally offered no evidence at court and,
over three years after our client’s ordeal began, not guilty
verdicts have rightly been returned by the Court.”
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