Action alert - Gerry McGeough

The following action alert was issued by supporters of leading republican Gerry McGeough following a bizarre intervention in his trial by far-right Swedish operatives.

Although a state of utter confusion now surrounds Gerry’s trial and there is a growing realization that it never should have been allowed to start under these circumstances, certain facts have nevertheless emerged during the process.

It is now obvious to observers that, despite all the hype, the crown prosecution has not produced a shred of meaningful evidence against Gerry McGeough.

That being the situation, the prosecution has now decided to switch the emphasis of its case to Political Asylum application papers, which they contend belong to Gerry, claiming that he sought Political Asylum in Sweden in 1983 and that these papers were the basis of his application.

Incredibly, the British are prepared to turn international law, human rights charters and UN refugee policies downside-up in order to railroad Gerry McGeough into prison.

Aside from the fact that Swedish protocol dictates that political asylum papers are guaranteed secrecy for 50 years under confidentiality clauses, it has already been established that the chain of custody regarding this particular file was broken long ago.

According to Swedish sources, it has emerged that the file being attributed to Gerry was in the possession of the British in London for the best part of a decade during the 1990s, during this time British Intelligence services were free to tamper with it as they pleased. It was then returned to Sweden before being moved again following Gerry’s arrest in 2007.

There is now a strong suspicion in some quarters that pro-British operatives within the Swedish system collaborated in the transfer of these papers to the Diplock Court in Belfast where they have been allowed to become the central evidence against Gerry.

The human rights abuses implicit in this action are staggering in their proportion. From now on, if a refugee turned up in Sweden fleeing from persecution in North Korea, for example, that person could eventually find themselves back before a court in N. Korea with their political refugee application being used as “evidence” against them by the very people they were fleeing from in the first place. That’s how serious a matter this is.

Gerry’s supporters are calling on people to contact their local Swedish Embassy and lodge a strong protest against the use of political asylum application papers as “evidence” in the already discredited Diplock Special Emergency Court system. They should also request that the Swedes demand the removal of these papers from the prosecution’s file and that they be returned to Sweden immediately.

Embassy of Sweden Washington

Postal address:

Embassy of Sweden
2900 K Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20007
USA

Phone: +1-202-467 2600
Fax: +1-202-467 2699
Email Embassy: ambassaden.washington@foreign.ministry.se

Urgent Appeal