4 November 1999 Edition
Adams to challenge DPP ruling
By Padraig MacDabhaid
WEST BELFAST republican Davy Adams is set to challenge the Director of Public Prosecution's decision not to prosecute the RUC officers who attacked him while he was being held in Castlereagh interrogation centre in 1994.
The decision was made in August, despite the fact that Adams had already won a civil case against the RUC and received £30,000 compensation for the attack, which left him in hospital for three weeks, where he was treated for a broken leg, two fractured ribs, a punctured lung and multiple cuts to his face and body. During the attack, RUC officers took turns to run at him, jumping on his leg in order to break it.
Solicitors acting on behalf of Adams plan to lodge an application for a judicial review of the DPP's decision at Belfast's High Court and it is believed that the case will be heard in two weeks.
Eamon McMenamin of Madden and Finucane, who is representing Adams, explained that the decision to apply for a judicial review was not only based on the DPP's decision: ``It is also to question the decision in September when the DPP failed to provide adequate and intelligible reasons for his decision. The evidence available is sufficient to warrant the prosecution of police officers. The DPP misdirected himself in law. He failed to take into account the full range of offences for which the officers could be prosecuted.''
WEST BELFAST republican Davy Adams is set to challenge the Director of Public Prosecution's decision not to prosecute the RUC officers who attacked him while he was being held in Castlereagh interrogation centre in 1994.
The decision was made in August, despite the fact that Adams had already won a civil case against the RUC and received £30,000 compensation for the attack, which left him in hospital for three weeks, where he was treated for a broken leg, two fractured ribs, a punctured lung and multiple cuts to his face and body. During the attack, RUC officers took turns to run at him, jumping on his leg in order to break it.
Solicitors acting on behalf of Adams plan to lodge an application for a judicial review of the DPP's decision at Belfast's High Court and it is believed that the case will be heard in two weeks.
Eamon McMenamin of Madden and Finucane, who is representing Adams, explained that the decision to apply for a judicial review was not only based on the DPP's decision: ``It is also to question the decision in September when the DPP failed to provide adequate and intelligible reasons for his decision. The evidence available is sufficient to warrant the prosecution of police officers. The DPP misdirected himself in law. He failed to take into account the full range of offences for which the officers could be prosecuted.''