11 February 1999 Edition
Mullen wins appeal
By Fern Lane
London-based campaigners for Irish political prisoners were jubilant last Thursday as the last Republican prisoner held in England, Nick Mullen, was released by the Court of Appeal.
In overturning Mullen's conviction and 30 year sentence Lord Justice Rose criticised the British intelligence service MI6 for their behaviour in respect of Mullen's arrest, calling it ``dishonest'', ``devious'' and in breach of international human rights. He also called on the British Home Secretary, Jack Straw, to investigate their ``unworthy and shameful'' behaviour which he said was an ``affront to the public conscience''.
Nevertheless, he qualified this criticism by telling the court that his judgement should not be interpreted as in any way contradicting the verdict of the original trial jury; in short, he believed Mullen to be guilty but was compelled to release him because of the incompetence of the security services.
Mullen, who was living in Zimbabwe at the time of his arrest, was convicted of conspiracy in 1990 after MI6 had succeeded in persuading the Zimbabwean authorities to illegally deport him on the spurious grounds that he had not mentioned a previous minor non-political conviction when he arrived in the country. These machinations to get him back on English soil eventually came to light some time after his trial when his lawyers managed to overturn a Public Interest Immunity Certificate which MI6 had obtained from the then Conservative government Home Secretary.
They discovered that MI6 had colluded with the Home Office, Foreign Office and the Zimbabwean secret service to lie about the circumstances surrounding his deportation. At a meeting in 1989 the various agencies had agreed amongst themselves to report that the Zimbabwean authorities had decided entirely independently to deport Mullen. The reason for this course of action was that MI6 believed any attempt to legally extradite him to England on political charges were likely to fail. Further, they were desperate that Mullen, who holds an Irish passport although he grew up in England, would not be returned to Ireland where he was unlikely to stand trial. To this end they ensured that the Irish embassy in Lusaka was not informed about his arrest. Subsequently, Mullen was denied access to a lawyer, forced on to a plane to London and arrested at Heathrow airport.
In his summing up Lord Justice Rose told the court that ``There was a blatant failure to adhere to the rule of law... preceded by an abuse of process which, had it come to light at the time - as it would have done had the prosecution made proper voluntary disclosure - would have justified the proceedings then being stayed'.
Speaking to An Phoblacht earlier this week, Nick Mullen talked about his plans to spend as much time as possible with his daughter and about the difficulties of the past nine years spent in English jails; he was largely isolated from other Republican prisoners, continuously moved around the country - on average every six months - and spent two years in Parkhurst Prison SSU. He was only moved out when he smashed up his cell.
He also expressed his support for the current efforts of the Republican leadership saying; ``I support the peace process, as have most prisoners, but I'm not as confident or hopeful about it as I was simply because of the way the Unionists are behaving''.
London-based campaigners for Irish political prisoners were jubilant last Thursday as the last Republican prisoner held in England, Nick Mullen, was released by the Court of Appeal.
In overturning Mullen's conviction and 30 year sentence Lord Justice Rose criticised the British intelligence service MI6 for their behaviour in respect of Mullen's arrest, calling it ``dishonest'', ``devious'' and in breach of international human rights. He also called on the British Home Secretary, Jack Straw, to investigate their ``unworthy and shameful'' behaviour which he said was an ``affront to the public conscience''.
Nevertheless, he qualified this criticism by telling the court that his judgement should not be interpreted as in any way contradicting the verdict of the original trial jury; in short, he believed Mullen to be guilty but was compelled to release him because of the incompetence of the security services.
Mullen, who was living in Zimbabwe at the time of his arrest, was convicted of conspiracy in 1990 after MI6 had succeeded in persuading the Zimbabwean authorities to illegally deport him on the spurious grounds that he had not mentioned a previous minor non-political conviction when he arrived in the country. These machinations to get him back on English soil eventually came to light some time after his trial when his lawyers managed to overturn a Public Interest Immunity Certificate which MI6 had obtained from the then Conservative government Home Secretary.
They discovered that MI6 had colluded with the Home Office, Foreign Office and the Zimbabwean secret service to lie about the circumstances surrounding his deportation. At a meeting in 1989 the various agencies had agreed amongst themselves to report that the Zimbabwean authorities had decided entirely independently to deport Mullen. The reason for this course of action was that MI6 believed any attempt to legally extradite him to England on political charges were likely to fail. Further, they were desperate that Mullen, who holds an Irish passport although he grew up in England, would not be returned to Ireland where he was unlikely to stand trial. To this end they ensured that the Irish embassy in Lusaka was not informed about his arrest. Subsequently, Mullen was denied access to a lawyer, forced on to a plane to London and arrested at Heathrow airport.
In his summing up Lord Justice Rose told the court that ``There was a blatant failure to adhere to the rule of law... preceded by an abuse of process which, had it come to light at the time - as it would have done had the prosecution made proper voluntary disclosure - would have justified the proceedings then being stayed'.
Speaking to An Phoblacht earlier this week, Nick Mullen talked about his plans to spend as much time as possible with his daughter and about the difficulties of the past nine years spent in English jails; he was largely isolated from other Republican prisoners, continuously moved around the country - on average every six months - and spent two years in Parkhurst Prison SSU. He was only moved out when he smashed up his cell.
He also expressed his support for the current efforts of the Republican leadership saying; ``I support the peace process, as have most prisoners, but I'm not as confident or hopeful about it as I was simply because of the way the Unionists are behaving''.