SF delegation slams McArdle brutalisation
by Michael Pierse
A Sinn Féin delegation of Martin Ferris, Cathal Crumley and
Frances McHugh have condemned the systematic mental and physical
torture to which Irish prisoner Séamus McArdle has been
subjected.
McArdle, from Crossmaglen in South Armagh, is currently on trial
in London, charged with murder and conspiracy to cause explosions
relating to the Canary Wharf bomb of 1996. However, the legal
ethic of ``innocent until proven guilty'' has been debunked in this
case.
Helicopters circling for prolonged periods over the glass roof of
the court and the encasing of the defendant within a glass
`bubble', surrounded by three prison officers, are coercive
tactics, designed not for security purposes but rather to
subconciously intimidate the jury through villification.
During his first trial, which lasted for six weeks earlier this
year, he was strip searched 150 times. Since then the strip
searches have continued. He is the only Irish prisoner charged
with a political offence imprisoned in a special secure unit
(SSU) in Belmarsh prison. The cage, which is devoid of daylight
and is so small that it would be illegal to hold an animal in it,
has been condemned by Amnesty International as constituting
cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions - illegal under
international law. McArdle suffered numerous injuries, including
a broken nose and jaw bone, during his arrest and in prison he
has had handcuffs bound so tight as that they cut off his blood
circulation, leaving him incapable of walking.
He has had only six visits since his arrest in April 1997 and has
not seen his sister or parents in that time. The SF delegation
have demanded that ``this innocent young man be treated as such''
and have urged people to send letters of support to Séamus and
also to write to the Home Office, 50 Queen Anne's Gate, London.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)