McFarlane takes case to High Court
Brendan `Bik' McFarlane, the former Officer Commanding of the H-Block republican prisoners during the 1981 hunger-strike, was granted leave by the High Court in Dublin this week to take an action to prevent his trial in the 26 Counties on charges of falsely imprisoning supermarket chain tycoon Don Tidey in 1983.
Bik, who is currently employed as a community worker in Belfast, was arrested on the day of his release under the Good Friday Agreement last year.
McFarlane had been commuting on a bus to Dublin when he was arrested at a ``routine'' Garda checkpoint.
At the High Court on Monday, 1 November, Hugh Hartnett, Senior Counsel for McFarlane, told Judge Catherine McGuinness that Bik had travelled within the 26 Counties previously, yet the State authorities had never attempted nor sought his arrest.
From 1993 to 1998, Bik had been released for two weeks every year and had spent periods of time in the 26 Counties with the full knowledge of the Gardaí.
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