A clear case of internment

Posted by Jim on December 7, 2015

The Anti-Internment League has described court hearings in which
seven-year-old charges were resurrected against republicans Davy Jordan
and Gavin Coyle as “political show trials”.

Gavin Coyle, who has already endured five years of a punitive solitary
confinement regime at Maghaberry high-security prison, was arrested
inside the jail earlier this week, and it is feared that the new charges
could prolong his nightmare for several years.

In a Crown court in Strabane on Thursday, the Omagh man refused to stand
or speak. But his lawyer, Niall Murphy, demanded to know why the charge
had only materialised five years after an alleged recording was obtained
of a conversation about an IRA attack. He also questioned why it was not
used against his client in his previous prosecution.

A PSNI officer present responded only by claiming that expert voice
recording analysis had taken “a long time to progress”.

Mr Murphy also pointed out that no specific details about the attack
were mentioned in the alleged conversation. Upon further questioning,
the PSNI detective admitted that the case against Coyle did not include
fingerprint, DNA, fibre or vehicle tracking evidence.

Mr Murphy accused the police of an abuse of process and said a bid to
stay the prosecution would be made at a later court hearing.

However, the judge cancelled a period of temporary release Mr Coyle was
due to receive over the Christmas period. Nevertheless, the defiant
republican gave the thumbs-up to supporters in the public gallery as he
was led from the dock.

On Friday, another Tyrone Republican, Davy Jordan, appeared in a court
in Dungannon in connection with the same incident. Jordan also did not
speak or stand during the hearing.

A detective sergeant said Mr Jordan refused to answer questions during
interrogations and when the charges were finally put to him on Thursday
night he replied to each: “I am totally innocent of this fabricated
charge.” She said the accused then added: “This is yet another case of
internment by remand.”

The PSNI detective then attempted to connect Mr Jordan to the charges as
a result of car identification near to the scene, but was forced to make
a number of embarrassing admissions.

It ultimately transpired that there was no new evidence against Mr
Jordan that wasn’t available when he was arrested and interviewed about
the same incident seven years ago, when he was released without charge.

Despite this, the Magistrate remanded him to Maghaberry jail in what the
Anti-Internment League described as “one of the clearest incidents of
internment by remand seen in Ireland in recent years”.

“Despite the counter claims of collaborators and quislings, internment
by remand is continuing to be used against Irish Republicans by the
MI5-directed PSNI and State Judiciary, supported by the Stormont SF/DUP
Coalition,” they said.

“The case of Gavin Coyle and Davy Jordan should be highlighted by all as
a disgraceful abuse of process, especially in the context of the
continuing targeted isolation of Gavin.”