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26 November 2014

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‘Hooded Men’ internment torture evidence – 4 December deadline for Irish Government action

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL is calling on the Irish Government to push for the cases of the so-called ‘Hooded Men’ to be reopened by the European Court of Human Rights.

‘The Hooded Men’ was the name given to 14 men interned without trial from August 1971 who were tortured by British Army interrogators using what were known as “the five techniques”.

The five techniques were hooding, stress positions, white noise, sleep deprivation and deprivation of food and water, and were combined with physical assaults and death threats to the men.

Amnesty’s call comes just months after an RTÉ Prime Time programme, Torture Files, revealed that the British Government knew of and sanctioned the use of the five torture techniques during the interrogation of detainees in August 1971 but denied this when Britain gave evidence to the European Court.

It has also come to light that British Labour Government ministers – including Merlyn Rees, Northern Secretary between 1974 and 1976, and Prime Minister Jim Callaghan – were aware the five techniques had been used and were sanctioned by government ministers in both Stormont and Westminster.

This is confirmed in a letter written by Rees to Callaghan in 1977 that said a “political decision had been taken”.

Merlyn Rees wrote:

“It is my view (confirmed by Brian Faulkner before his death) that the decision to use methods of torture in Northern Ireland in 1971/72 was taken by ministers, in particular Lord Carrington, then Secretary of State for Defence.”

A European Court ruling in 1976 found the British guilty, saying the methods used by the RUC and British military interrogators amounted to torture.

In an appeal in 1978, however, the European Court decided that while the five techniques amounted to “inhuman and degrading” treatment but they could not be described as torture.

In light of the RTÉ revelations, Amnesty International is pressing the Dublin government to act before the 4 December deadline (six months from the date the new information became known) to lodge a request with the Court for a revision of the judgment.

Hooded Men Gerard McKerr

One of the 'Hooded Men': Gerard McKerr (Image: RTÉ)

Colm O'Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland, said:

“These men and their families have a right to truth and justice. We recognise the diplomatic challenges in Ireland’s seeking to have this case reopened. However, we hope the Irish Government today shows the same determination of its predecessors in 1971 who took a bold and unprecedented step to uphold the rule of law and expose human rights violations.”

Amnesty Int re Hooded Men

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International Programme Director in the North of Ireland, said:

“As well as a reopening of the Ireland v UK case, the UK has a long overdue responsibility to establish an independent investigation into the torture of these men and to hold to account those responsible. That has never happened.

“That is unacceptable, both for the men, their surviving family members, and society more generally.

“That responsibility lies squarely with the UK Government. We call on Ireland to use its good offices to ensure that the UK carries out such a human rights compliant investigation.

“This case underscores the need for a comprehensive means of dealing with the past in Northern Ireland and the need for all parties to the conflict to come clean about their role in human rights violations and abuses.”

Watch: RTÉ Investigations Unit: The Torture Files

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