Sinn Féin supports Special Criminal Court
At today’s Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, its party membership supported a motion brought forward by the leadership of the organisation, withdrawing its opposition to the Twenty-Six Counties Special Criminal Court.
The Sinn Féin Ard Fheis motion states that it supports the use of such courts, in ‘exceptional circumstances’ but doesn’t go on to state or define what circumstances are ‘exceptional’, allowing the party to deliver vague positions to the media, the state, the public, and of course its own membership.
Up until today, Sinn Féin had opposed the existence of the non-jury Special Criminal Court which has been used to prosecute and jail members of the IRA. Speaking in 2015, Sinn Féin’s then party president Gerry Adams said, “Sinn Féin is absolutely opposed to the existence and operation of the non-jury Special Criminal Court.”
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has argued it has denied fair trial rights for half a century. Additionally, the United Nations Human Rights Council stated more than 20 years ago that “steps should be taken to end the jurisdiction of the Special Criminal Court”.
Pádraic MacCoitir, spokesperson for Lasair Dhearg, and who has faced non-jury courts on several occasions, said, “We all know the impact these courts had on those that had to face them. I myself faced non-jury courts on three occasions, with one acquittal and sentences of three years and twenty years respectively.”
“Sinn Féin have now firmly established themselves across Ireland as the party of ‘law and order’. That leadership should now issue a public apology to every member of the Republican Movement who suffered the consequences of these courts as they fulfilled their commitments as part of that Movement.”
“Those volunteers lost their liberty in the fight for an Ireland free from the persecution of discriminatory legal processes and court systems such as the non-jury Special Criminal Court. Now those very courts are poised to be supported by Sinn Féin across Ireland.”
