Republican released after three years on remand

Fermanagh Republican Peter Granaghan has been set free after enduring three years of internment by remand.

Since his initial arrest in 2019, Mr Granahan had consistently denied any involvement in an alleged plot against a high ranking member of the Crown Forces at a golf club in Belfast.

Despite a lack of evidence against him, Mr Granahan was held without bail, and even denied compassionate bail for the severe illness and death of his mother. A trial court in Belfast this week heard the prosecution case was “inherently weak and speculative” before he was cleared of all charges.

In a statement, Saoradh said the both the PSNI and Crown prosecutors “were well aware that this case was ultimately doomed to fail, and that a prosecution was extremely unlikely - even in the context of non-jury Diplock Courts.”

“The State’s aim was not to prosecute but to intern,” they said.

“Not to get ‘justice’ but to deny justice, and in the process fire a warning shot to anyone in the Fermanagh area that opposes the status quo and Stormont poverty process.

“Their sole aim was to remove Peter Granaghan from his home, family and community for a number of years.

“That they were able to do so unchallenged by any of those purporting to be ‘progressives’ and ‘human rights activists’ is a damning indictment on the toothless, complicit and bourgeoisie organisations that dare to use these terms to identify themselves.

“The vindictiveness and callousness of the State Agencies and Crown Forces in this case is most ably exemplified by the way in which they combined to deny compassionate bail to Peter as his mother was dying and following her death.

“While others scream from the rooftops about the defeat of the criminalisation policy in 1981, they ignore their current role in administering an identical contemporary policy that sees Republican Prisoners such as Peter denied the right to be with loved ones as they approach their final minutes on this earth or to attend their funerals.

“Such are the cruel and embittered MI5-controlled regime in Maghaberry, they denied Peter access to court so he would be denied the opportunity to walk from a British court a free man. Instead they held him in Maghaberry and made him watch the proceedings via video link. The MI5 controlled Maghaberry is just another arm of the British state.

“Saoradh, the IRPWA and the wider Republican Movement extend solidarity to Peter as he returns home unbowed, unbroken and unbought.”

Urgent Appeal