Republican News · Thursday 13 March 1997

[An Phoblacht]

``No reason to hold Roisín''

by Eoin O Broin

Following the adjournment of her application for bail on 11 March, Roisín McAliskey faces another court hearing this Friday, 14 March. Under the downgrading of her category status last Friday, strip-searching will no longer be mandatory but will, nonetheless, continue on a discretionary basis.

Extradition proceedings were to begin on 8 March. However that hearing was postponed because of the new bail application and McAliskey's appeal to the House of Lords where she is seeking to have her extradition ruled unlawful. She is due to appear before Bow Street Magistrates court again on 9 April.

On 12 March a number of social workers, probation officers and Holloway prison staff met Roisín to decide whether she will be allowed to keep her child.

Speaking to An Phoblacht, Oliver Kearney of the Roisín McAliskey Justice Group said the decision by the British Home Office to reclassify Roisin to standard risk Category A was ``breathtaking in its arrogance and in its cynical political expediency. The argument that Roisin should be refused bail on the grounds of her `High Risk' category and the likelihood that she might abscond, is now utterly unsustainable, and there is not a shred of justification for continuing to hold her in custody''.

Dr Jane Wilde of the Women's Coalition, who visited Roisín as part of a delegation on International Women's Day said: ``Much of [Roisín] McAliskey's day is spent with two male guards on either side of her. During the mornings and afternoons, they remain beside her in a television room empty of all other people. Her status means that the light is left on in her cell all night. She is not allowed to access the swimming pool or the ante-natal education classes there. Consequently through lack of information she has had problems developing a birth plan.''

Dr Wilde's main concern was that under no circumstances should Roisin be separated from her child after birth.

Speaking to An Phoblacht, Cecelia Keaveny, Fianna Fail TD for Donegal North East also stressed the importance of McAliskey keeping her child, both for her own health and that of the child. Keaveny said there were three options: ``either to transfer Roisin to Maghaberry, to reduce her category status to grade C so that she can use the mother and baby room in Holloway, or to grant her bail''.

Meanwhile, MEPs from the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties have been met with non-cooperation from the British Home Office since their request on 28 February for permission to send a delegation to visit Roisín.

The British Home Office says extradition proceedings against Roisín McAliskey are likely to last well into 1998.

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