Statement from Republican Prisoners of Maghaberry Gaol
Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (IRPWA) has published a statement on behalf of republican prisoners in Maghaberry Gaol.
In the statement the prisoners denounce the “internment by remand policy” of Britain, which has, only in the past year, resulted in the denial of bail for 11 republican prisoners.
IRPWA writes: “Republican Prisoners have also suffered under the most draconian legislation introduced by Britain since 1976, when political status was removed from Republican Prisoners, culminating in the blanket protest and hunger strikes. All sentenced Republican Prisoners under the new so-called “terrror legislation” must now serve a minimum of two-thirds of their sentence in custody prior to any alleged suitability for release assessment by British bureaucrats in the Parole Commission, who now receive direction from “MARA” – a shadowy organisation led by MI5 whose aim is to prevent the release of Republican Prisoners back to their families.”
The statement goes on to condemn the treatment of the prisoners at Maghaberry.
They conclude: “The core issues for Republican Prisoners of controlled movement and strip searching remain ever present. Over the past 12 months, there have been many brutal forced strip searches enforced on Republican Prisoners, in spite of the introduction of the X-Ray body scanner, which has, in fact, been weaponised and used as a tool to place Republican Prisoners on “the boards” for extended periods despite there never having been an instance where any “illicit / prohibited” items were found.
Republican Prisoners remain committed to challenging the oppressive Maghaberry regime and its human rights abuses, and we will do so irrespective of the wilful blindness in many quarters of self-promoting, bar-stool “Republicans”, whose silence and inactivity on the aforementioed makes them complicit in the very system that aims to break the back of Republican Prisoners.”
You can read the entire statement here:
