Sinn Féin begins legal challenge to IMC report

On Tuesday 15 June Sinn Féin began proceedings in the High Court in Belfast seeking a judicial review of British minister Paul Murphy's decision to block financial assistance to the party on the back of the April report by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) on paramilitary activity.

The party makes the case that the legislation that established the IMC was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights and that the IMC report is based on untested information from unidentified sources which are unreliable and incapable of verification.

"The IMC could not have reasonably concluded that Sinn Féin bore any responsibility for the continuation of paramilitary activity. They failed to specify the extent of that responsibilty and what Sinn Féin could have done about it", states Sinn Féin's legal papers.

The application for leave to apply for a judicial review was mentioned briefly before Judge Girvan and was adjourned until Thursday 17 June.