Republican News · Thursday 9 January 1996

[An Phoblacht]

Whitemoor trial to restart

BY LIAM O COILEAIN

The trial of the six men accused of the Whitemoor escape in 1994 will begin again on Monday 13 January. The five Irish and one English prisoners have spent more than two years in atrocious conditions in Special Secure Units awaiting a court date.

The trial had commenced in September 1996 but collapsed almost immediately. Those facing charges are republican POWs Peter Sherry, Liam O Duibhir, Liam McCotter and Paul Magee, miscarriage of justice victim Danny McNamee and Englishman Andy Russell.

McNamee, from Crossmaglen, is in the 11th year of a 25-year sentence imposed in 1987 on charges of conspiracy to cause explosions. He has always protested his innocence and the central feature of his defence during the escape trial will be his innocence of the original crime for which he is imprisoned and the Home Secretary's failure to act on what the Danny McNamee Support Group describes as ``compelling and extensive new evidence in his case submitted two and a half years ago''.

Respected US Judge Andrew Somers from Wisconsin will attend as an observer at the trial. Judge Somers attended McNamee's 1987 trial and has supported his pleas of innocence ever since.

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