15 April 2004 Edition

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Mackin released

After being roughly arrested in Belfast on Friday afternoon last, Irish republican Seán Mackin was released from PSNI custody without charge the following day.

Mackin, a New York resident since 1984, when he claimed political asylum in the US, was arrested on the Grosvenor Road in Belfast. He was assaulted as he was bundled into a PSNI vehicle and was then held in the PSNI's Antrim Interrogation Centre under the Terrorism Act 2000, according to the PSNI for questioning regarding the 1983 killing of an RUC man, before being released.

Sinn Féin had urgently demanded his release and contacted the US consulate in Belfast to protest the arrest.

The arrest was definitely politically motivated, as within hours of his arrest the PSNI Special Branch were briefing journalists that he was a Friends of Sinn Féin fundraiser. Mackin is a strong advocate for the Peace Process who has worked with Friends of Sinn Féin and many believe that his arrest was an attempt to intimidate Irish America.

"Seán Mackin is a political refugee and a US citizen," said Gerry Kelly. "He was visiting family in West Belfast, as he has often done in the past, when he was trailed from his car in the Roden Street area, assaulted and bundled into an unmarked PSNI vehicle.

"This action, coming in the week when evidence of the Special Branch involvement in various criminal activities, including murder, was unveiled by Judge Cory, is further evidence of the influence of the old regime over current policing arrangements."

A federal immigration court granted Mackin and his family asylum in the US in January 1992, in what was hailed as a groundbreaking case. Pat Finucane, whose 1989 murder by loyalists in Belfast was investigated for evidence of RUC collusion by Canadian judge Peter Cory, was an expert witness for Mackin at a court hearing in November 1988, three months before he was killed.

In connection to his political asylum case in US courts, the RUC and British Intelligence at the time stated no cause to seek him or to question him on any charges.


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