4 terrorists cleared because "the Real IRA is not an illegal organisation"

[Don Rizzle]

when they updated the terrorism law in 2000 the real ira was left of the list of terrorist organisations, the real ira were behind the biggest attack on britain excluding lockerby killing 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bombing. so these people can't currently be charged under terrorism laws. tories today say they raised their concerns at the time of just listing the ira instead of the different terrorists organisations working in northen ireland and it has now come back to haunt the government. big blunder if u ask me. although they are still being charged for the murders, and without a doubt the law will change.

Anger over Real IRA move
The father of one of the Omagh bomb victims has accused the Northern Ireland Office of "breathtaking incompetence".
Solicitor Victor Barker, whose son James was killed in the bombing, was reacting to a landmark ruling by a senior judge at Belfast Crown Court on Wednesday, that the Real IRA is not an illegal organisation.

The Real IRA was behind the 1998 Omagh bombing, in which 29 people died.

Mr Justice Girvan cleared four men of being RIRA members, saying that under current legislation an organisation was proscribed only if it was listed or operated under the same name as a listed organisation.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, Mr Barker said: "It is apparently a very technical argument as to why this organisation is not proscribed.



If this is a loophole we have got to cover up, then we'll deal with it. We'll take it to appeal
Paul Murphy
Secretary of State
"It seems to me that someone in the NIO has shown a breathtaking incompetence to put us in the position where, clearly, a very active terrorist organisation is not proscribed under the legislation."

Mr Barker said that it was "absolutely flabbergasting" that the Real IRA was not a proscribed organisation in Northern Ireland.


Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said if this was a legal loophole, it would be dealt with and the government would bring it to appeal.

"What we will do is appeal this and, if necessary we will change the law on it," he told the BBC on Thursday.

"The term 'IRA' I think, both in Ireland and in the UK, was an umbrella term for all the different groupings within the Irish Republican Army.

And it was felt then, it certainly wasn't challenged then, that that covered the Real IRA and that is why it caused everybody to believe this was the case.

"If this is a loophole we have got to cover up, then we'll deal with it. We'll take it to appeal."

The leader of the House of Commons, Peter Hain, told MPs that the RIRA should be an illegal organisation.

He said that the director of public prosecutions was forwarding a report to the attorney general with a view to referring the case to the Court of Appeal


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/3752701.stm