5 March 1998 Edition

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Ex-POW wins compo

TEN years after a prison beating that left Martin Meehan hospitalised for a week, a Court has awarded him £14,000 in damages.

Meehan lodged his case against the governor of Long Kesh and the Secretary of State shortly after the incident, but it was ``bounced around the courts as the crown mounted appeal after appeal,'' Meehan said.

Meehan was offered £5,000 to settle out of court but fought on ``to benefit the extradition fight of the detainees in America, to aid those in Britain and to end brutality against POWs,'' he said.

He asked: ``will those prison officers responsible now be held accountable for their actions, after it was proven in open Court that they were guilty of an offence.''

Meehan stressed that the victory may have a bearing on the extradition battle in America, setting an important precedent for the US courts about deporting detainees to a brutal regime.

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