PSNI ‘attempting to put RNU out of business’

Carl Reilly, the chairperson of Republican Network for Unity has been arrested and charged with ‘directing terrorism’, while another member of the RNU leadership, Paul Crawford, was also arrested on IRA charges.

Despite facing a potentially lengthy internment at Maghaberry, Mr Reilly smiled and acknowledged friends and supporters packed into the public gallery at Belfast Magistrates’ Court.

The PSNI claimed he had attended in a hotel in County Louth which had been bugged by the Gardai police south of the border. He was refused bail.

Republican Network for Unity spokesperson Cait Nic Shomhairle has condemned the PSNI and judiciary’s attempt to put the party “out of business”.

“It comes as no surprise that after years of trying, the state has moved to quell legitimate political opposition to the six county internal settlement once and for all,” she said.

“The PSNI in cooperation with the judiciary have decided to arrest and charge two members of Republican Network for Unity’s Ard Chomhairle using evidence that simply isn’t fit for purpose.

“This has been shown up exactly for what it is; an attempt to remove the party from the political scene.”

She said the party’s collective leadership would respond to the political policing “in its most blatant form” with the “only appropriate response; hard work and continued determination to achieve the party’s goals”.

“The PSNI, like their predecessors are pursuing a strategy underpinned by redundant tactics that will result in utter failure. Naturally we demand the immediate release of the two men and call for an end to the PSNI’s political persecution of the Republican community.”

The Irish Republican Socialist Party has also condemned the use of repressive actions by the PSNI, including the arrest and detention of party members, the searching of homes and sinister approaches to young party activists.

They distributed leaflets in the Divis area of west Belfast which read, in part: “The PSNI can never be accepted as a legitimate police service because they exist to protect partition and to serve the ruling elite... we must never forget that this is what that uniform stands for.”

Last week there was a mass ‘mobilisation’ and march in north Belfast, also in protest at political policing, organised by the Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective.

Urgent Appeal