Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Adams’ jail escape appeal bid rejected
Ex-sinn Fein chief ‘disappointed’ by judgment
GERRY Adams is to consider a court appeal after failing in his legal bid to overturn two historic convictions yesterday.
The former Sinn Fein leader said he was “disappointed, though not entirely surprised” by the Court of Appeal judgment in Belfast.
Mr Adams had challenged the legality of the convictions received in 1975 relating to escape bids while he was detained without trial at the Maze Prison during the early 1970s.
His lawyers argued that his imprisonment was unlawful because of flaws in the detention process. They claimed the order used to intern him was not legal, so he therefore should not have been prosecuted for trying to escape.
The lawyers said Mr Adams’ internment was not lawful because the order to hold him had not been considered by the Secretary of State but was signed by a junior minister at the Northern Ireland Office.
They contested that the 1972 Detention of Terrorists
Order required senior level authorisation. Three Court of Appeal judges rejected that argument yesterday.
The judgment read: “The Court of Appeal was satisfied that the [Interim Custody Order] was valid having been made by the minister on behalf of the Secretary of State. “The Court was satisfied that the appellant’s convictions are safe and dismissed the appeal.”
Mr Adams said: “I will now discuss with my legal advisers what options, including an appeal, are open to me.”
The Louth TD was first detained in March 1972, but released in June that year to take part in secret talks in London.
He was rearrested in July 1973 at a Belfast house and interned at the Maze Prison, also known as Long Kesh.