24 September 1998 Edition
NIO delaying releases
A recently released republican POW, Seanna Walsh from Belfast, who was freed last Friday has said that ``the release procedure is being deliberately delayed''. He claimed that ``there is political interference in the process''
Walsh explained that the Sentence Review Commission ``seems to deal with the applications that the prisoners are making to them, but within the prison system correspondence is being held up''.
Walsh described how letters to prisoners from the Commission were being opened and read by prison censors while information which was requested by the Commission from the prison service was being withheld until the last minute.
``These delays won't halt a release in the long term, but it does mean that the backlog of releases arising out of the Good Friday Document are being stalled and so far no women have been released from Maghaberry prison,'' stressed Walsh.
Meanwhile Sinn Fein Assembly member Gerry Kelly met with the Sentence review Commissioners last Friday to outline the party's concerns over the speed of releases.
After the meeting Kelly told journalists that ``the prisoners are an integral part of the agreement. I was here today to find out if there was any blockage ... and the meeting was a good working meeting''.
So far this week ten republican POWs have been released including lifers Peter Markey and Sean McKinley and Bernard Fox from Belfast who was on the blanket protest and on the 1981 hunger strike.
Walsh explained that the Sentence Review Commission ``seems to deal with the applications that the prisoners are making to them, but within the prison system correspondence is being held up''.
Walsh described how letters to prisoners from the Commission were being opened and read by prison censors while information which was requested by the Commission from the prison service was being withheld until the last minute.
``These delays won't halt a release in the long term, but it does mean that the backlog of releases arising out of the Good Friday Document are being stalled and so far no women have been released from Maghaberry prison,'' stressed Walsh.
Meanwhile Sinn Fein Assembly member Gerry Kelly met with the Sentence review Commissioners last Friday to outline the party's concerns over the speed of releases.
After the meeting Kelly told journalists that ``the prisoners are an integral part of the agreement. I was here today to find out if there was any blockage ... and the meeting was a good working meeting''.
So far this week ten republican POWs have been released including lifers Peter Markey and Sean McKinley and Bernard Fox from Belfast who was on the blanket protest and on the 1981 hunger strike.