13 August 1998 Edition
RUC told lies to force SF expulsion from talks
In February Sinn Féin was thrown out of the multi-party negotiations following briefings by the RUC that the IRA was involved in killing a drug dealer, Brendan Campbell, and a loyalist, Robert Dougan, in Belfast.
Three men were arrested in the Twinbrook area for the killing of Robert Dougan. The RUC immediately briefed a number of journalists about the arrests. They said the men were members of the IRA and that there was forensic evidence against them. Newspapers printed detailed articles about the men and their arrests and the impression was built up that the men were undoubtedly guilty.
This fed into a political atmosphere which demanded Sinn Féin's expulsion from the talks. It was a serious crisis for the peace process, deliberately stoked up by the RUC.
At the time Laura Friel wrote in An Phoblacht, under the headline `RUC Spin Doctors Give False Information', ``There is no forensic evidence to link the accused with the shooting [of Dougan]. No weapon has been recovered. The defendants have not incriminated themselves and identification evidence has already been challenged in Belfast's High Court. Circumstantial evidence has been described as flimsy.''
At the men's first court appearance after their arrests, a solicitor representing one of them accused the RUC of deliberately misleading the court.
This week the three men were released and all charges were dropped. There was no evidence. The RUC deliberately told lies to journalists and witheld information from the courts which put the peace process in peril.
Questions must now be asked about the RUC media management of this situation. Why did they give false information? In whose interests was that information given? And on whose orders?
How can there be confidence in a force which acts in this way?
Three men were arrested in the Twinbrook area for the killing of Robert Dougan. The RUC immediately briefed a number of journalists about the arrests. They said the men were members of the IRA and that there was forensic evidence against them. Newspapers printed detailed articles about the men and their arrests and the impression was built up that the men were undoubtedly guilty.
This fed into a political atmosphere which demanded Sinn Féin's expulsion from the talks. It was a serious crisis for the peace process, deliberately stoked up by the RUC.
At the time Laura Friel wrote in An Phoblacht, under the headline `RUC Spin Doctors Give False Information', ``There is no forensic evidence to link the accused with the shooting [of Dougan]. No weapon has been recovered. The defendants have not incriminated themselves and identification evidence has already been challenged in Belfast's High Court. Circumstantial evidence has been described as flimsy.''
At the men's first court appearance after their arrests, a solicitor representing one of them accused the RUC of deliberately misleading the court.
This week the three men were released and all charges were dropped. There was no evidence. The RUC deliberately told lies to journalists and witheld information from the courts which put the peace process in peril.
Questions must now be asked about the RUC media management of this situation. Why did they give false information? In whose interests was that information given? And on whose orders?
How can there be confidence in a force which acts in this way?