McBrides challenge British army
By CAITLIN DOHERTY
The family of assassinated North Belfast teenager Peter McBride is
challenging the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) by seeking a judicial
review of the decision to allow the two British soldiers convicted of
murder to remain in the army.
The British soldiers lost two appeals against their murder convictions
before being freed on the word of Mo Mowlam. They immediately returned to
their regiment. An Phoblacht has learned that they resumed immediate
training in England in the same training centre as the RIR. They are now
understood to be part of a future so-called peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
The legal challenge to an MoD decision, which is unprecedented in legal
history, opened at the Belfast High Court on Tuesday. Acting on behalf of
the McBride family, Micheal Lavery QC from Madden & Finucane solicitors,
said in court on Tuesday that ``in England, police officers who ill-treat
dogs are not seen suitable for service, whereas soldiers who murder
innocent civilians are.''
The British MoD has so far argued that the Scots Guards case is a ``private
matter'' between the Army Board and the soldiers and is therefore not
suitable for review.
This interpretation was, however, challenged by Micheal Lavery, who urged
the British army not to shy away from the fact that it is not a private
matter and is therefore suitable for judicial review.
Micheal Lavery added that a number of issues were at stake, such as public
confidence in the army, the rights of people. ``This is a matter of public
law'', he added before concluding that the remedy was a judicial review.
The arrogance and insensitivity of the British army defence was blatant.
The MoD lawyer, Ian Burnett QC, told the McBride family that they had ``no
right'' to have the two soldiers thrown out of the army.
The independent assessor of military complaints, Jim MacDonald has himself
recently ``seriously criticised'' the decision to allow Scots Guards James
Fisher and Mark Wright remain in the British army. In his sixth annual
report, MacDonald said the decision could undermine confidence in the
government.
``The view expressed to me to me by a large number of people at all levels
within the community was that, whereas it was acceptable that these two
young men were released by the Secretary of State, it was inappropriate
that they were subsequently reinstated in their regiment,'' he said.
Paul O'Connor, of the Pat Finucane Centre, who has campaigned on behalf of
the McBride family, called McDonald's remarks ``highly significant''. Peter
McBride's mother, Jean, said she was ``delighted'' with the statement.
``I knew from the start that they would be released, but when they were
allowed back into the army it just floored me'', she said.
The two British soldiers who shot the father-of-two in the back shortly
after he was stopped and searched in New Lodge were serving life sentences
for the killing of the North Belfast man in September 1992 when they were
released by Mo Mowlam after six years in jail.
The decision on whether to grant a judicial review to the McBrides is
expected to be reserved.
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