Torture

Strasbourg-Brief for Attorney General

Brief for the British Attorney General (AG) in preparation for the 'Irish state case' (the Hooded Men) from September 1972 from DS10 (the Defence Secretariat at the MoD in London). Of interest is the disinformation provided to the AG, the most senior law officer in Britain, by the Ministry of Defence. At para 4 it is claimed that Ballykelly only...

Labour calls for halt to bill shielding UK soldiers from prosecution

27 August 2020
Proposed Overseas Operations Bill would grant immunity from prosecution to British soldiers involved in torture and murder overseas.

MI5 policy 'gives agents legal immunity to commit serious crimes'

12 November 2019
Four NGOs including PFC challenge legal immunity for state agents at Investigatory Powers Tribunal-the 'Third Direction' case. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/05/mi5-policy-gives-agents…

COURT DELIVERS “HOODED MEN” JUDGMENT

Friday 20 September 2019
03 October 2019
The Court of Appeal, by a majority of two to one, said it was satisfied that the treatment to which Hood ed Men had been subjected to would if it occurred today pro perly be characterised as torture , bearing in mind that the European Convention on Human Rights is a living instrument, but that the...

PFC submission to UN Committee Against Torture

04 April 2019
Submission from the Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) to the United Nations Committee Against Torture 6th Periodic Review for the UK May 2019

UK to pay £1 million compensation to Greek Cypriots

The Guardian
04 February 2019
In an out-of-court settlement the British Government has agreed to pay $1 Million in compensation to 33 former EOKA fighters who were tortured by British troops and police in the 1950s.

Ireland v UK 2018

Judgement of ECHR
20 March 2018
ECHR have rejected application by Irish Government to revise the original judgement in the Hooded Men case ROI v UK 1978. The 1978 judgement found that the treatment constituted inhuman & degrading treatment, but not torture. Today the ECHR has upheld that judgement 6-1 (Judge O'Leary dissenting-...

Use of "torture" in 1971/ 72 was "a political decision"

Pat Finucane Centre
25 October 2017
This letter, written 31 March 1977, explicitly states that torture in Northern Ireland was a political decision made by then Secretary of State Lord Carrington.

Statement from Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs re 'Hooded Men'

Dec 2014
23 October 2017
Statement issued by Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan TD in which the government requests of the EcHR that the case of the 'Hooded Men' be reopened in light of new revelations.

MI5 and the 'Hooded Men'

Tom Griffin
11 September 2017
MI5 and the Hooded Men: The role of David Eastwood in Operation Calaba In recent months, the Pat Finucane Centre has uncovered an array of new evidence pointing to the use of waterboarding and electric shock treatment by army and RUC interrogators in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.
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