Saoradh member hospitalised by PSNI assault

Saoradh has slammed an assault by PSNI members on a party activist in Newry on Friday evening, August 25th, which resulted in the victim requiring hospital treatment for his injuries.

The incident was captured on video, which the party uploaded to its website. In a statement, it said the young man was making his way to a local supermarket when he noticed he was being monitored by the PSNI. At the same time an unwanted sectarian band parade was taking place nearby.

A PSNI member made “derogatory remarks” towards him when the republican began recording the PSNI man’s details, at which point he was subjected to a physical assault which left him in the emergency department at the local hospital.

Condemning the incident, Saoradh’s Newry representative Stephen Murney said”: “Unbeknownst to the PSNI thugs our party member preempted the fact that he would be accosted by the state militia and recorded what happened which was totally uncalled for and should be condemned by all.”

Mr Murney stated: “A PSNI member with the number 23968 shockingly stated “Getting your steps up rightly, good man”.....the thug then went on to say.......... “You could do with a good bit of weight off”.

“To his credit our young activist approached the bully and recorded his badge number. The thug took exception to this and then proceeded to assault the young man, all of which was captured on camera.”

The statement continued: “Of course maybe the ‘officer’ in question is under a lot of stress at the moment due to his colleagues releasing his personal details to the general public, but that should be no excuse to verbally shame and assault a young man.

“It’s bad enough that the entire centre of Newry was shut down to facilitate a sectarian parade but we now have the Crown Forces verbally abusing and assaulting local Republicans.

“This hate fest resulted in widespread traffic disruption, road closures, loss of business and violence and intimidation being meted out by the forces of the Crown.”

Mr Murney urged local politicians to take action over PSNI harassment and attacks.

“Will they now speak out about the verbal abuse and violence carried out by the PSNI facilitators of this parade towards local Republicans? Or will they continue to proved fig-leaf cover for these mercenaries and their actions? We think we know the answer”.

Urgent Appeal