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?
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