US judge slams British justice

An American Immigration Judge has rejected US Government efforts to deport Belfast man Sean Ó Ceallaigh after she ruled that British courts guilty of "failing to satisfy international fair trial standards" and of convicting republican suspects on "purely political grounds".

Ó Ceallaigh had been convicted of the killings of two plainclothes British soldiers by a Belfast Diplock Court in 1991.

Although Ó Ceallaigh always protested his innocence and was never convicted of IRA membership, he was sentenced to serve concurrent terms of 15 and 10 years for causing grievious bodily harm to the soldiers. He served eight years before his release under the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

In 1999, he emigrated to America and was granted permanent residency under the Green Card Scheme in 2001. He married an American woman, with whom he now has a three-year-old son.

Ó Ceallaigh was arrested by US Immigration staff at Los Angeles International airport on 25 February after returning from a family christening in Belfast.

US Immigration and Customs Officials claimed he had failed to list his previous "criminal history" on his immigration papers and was therefore "inadmissible to the US because of his conviction".

However, in handing down her decision last week, Judge Rose Peters said that Ó Cealleagh had been tried in a politically charged atmosphere and that the deck was stacked against him from the beginning. Judge Peters went on to question Ó Ceallaigh's original conviction - saying she believed the verdict to be tainted - and ruled that the Belfast man should be allowed to live permanently in America.

The US government now has 30 days in which to appeal the decision. Ó Ceallaigh must remain in custody until that time.