EXTRADITING ALLEGED DISSIDENT WILL LEAD TO DEGRADING JAIL TREATMENT
Extraditing alleged dissident will lead to degrading jail treatment
By Barry McCaffrey
AN ALLEGED Real IRA leader named in court as the mastermind behind the Omagh bomb will suffer "inhuman and degrading" treatment if he is extradited to Lithuania, a prisons' inspector has warned.
Liam Campbell (46) is fighting extradition to the country, where he is wanted for questioning in connection with a Real IRA arms smuggling plot.
In May of last year Campbell was arrested by the PSNI as he drove across the border.
A European Arrest Warrant was then issued to extradite him.
Weeks later he was named in court as the mastermind behind the Real IRA bomb attack on Omagh in August 1998, which killed 29 people and two unborn children.
However, Professor Rod Morgan, who is a special adviser to the British Home Office and the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), told a Belfast court yesterday that Campbell could face being held in inhuman prison conditions for five years while awaiting trial if extradited to Lithuania.
The Bristol law professor told the court that three separate CPT inspections of Lithuanian prisons between 2000 and 2008 had uncovered widespread evidence of physical abuse and overcrowding of prisons.
If extradited, Campbell is likely to initially be detained at a Lithuanian police station.
However, Prof Morgan said CPT inspections of police stations uncovered numerous allegations of physical abuse, including attempts to suffocate suspects by placing a rubber gas mask or plastic bag over their faces.
"The number and consistency of the allegations lend them credibility," he said.
Despite attempts to improve conditions, Prof Morgan said that inspectors who returned in 2008 found police station conditions remained "unacceptable," with six forced to sleep in a cell without mattresses or blankets.
Campbell's brother Michael has been held in a prison in the country for more than two years in connection with the same offences.
The court heard that he is held in a cell with three others, allowed to shower only once a week and is forced to use a hole in the ground as a toilet.
CPT inspectors found that parts of Lukiskes Prison, where Liam Campbell is likely to be held, was "outrageously overcrowded," with six prisoners to a cell.
"In many of the cells, there was little room for any furniture apart from two triple or three double bunk beds," Prof Morgan said.
"Further, the waist-level partitions of the lavatories in most of the cells were not sufficient to provide any real privacy or to dispel the impression that prisoners were obliged to eat, sleep, indeed, to spend 23 hours of each day, in a space which also served as a lavatory."
The court heard that Prof Morgan and Campbell's lawyers have both been refused permission by the Lithuanian authorities to inspect prison conditions.
Raising concerns over Campbell's extradition, Prof Morgan concluded: "He would almost certainly experience inhuman or degrading treatment during an initial period of police custody, and very likely experience inhuman or degrading treatment in prison remand custody.
"There is also a risk that he would be the victim of inter-prisoner violence in prison custody."
The hearing will continue today.
By Barry McCaffrey
AN ALLEGED Real IRA leader named in court as the mastermind behind the Omagh bomb will suffer "inhuman and degrading" treatment if he is extradited to Lithuania, a prisons' inspector has warned.
Liam Campbell (46) is fighting extradition to the country, where he is wanted for questioning in connection with a Real IRA arms smuggling plot.
In May of last year Campbell was arrested by the PSNI as he drove across the border.
A European Arrest Warrant was then issued to extradite him.
Weeks later he was named in court as the mastermind behind the Real IRA bomb attack on Omagh in August 1998, which killed 29 people and two unborn children.
However, Professor Rod Morgan, who is a special adviser to the British Home Office and the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), told a Belfast court yesterday that Campbell could face being held in inhuman prison conditions for five years while awaiting trial if extradited to Lithuania.
The Bristol law professor told the court that three separate CPT inspections of Lithuanian prisons between 2000 and 2008 had uncovered widespread evidence of physical abuse and overcrowding of prisons.
If extradited, Campbell is likely to initially be detained at a Lithuanian police station.
However, Prof Morgan said CPT inspections of police stations uncovered numerous allegations of physical abuse, including attempts to suffocate suspects by placing a rubber gas mask or plastic bag over their faces.
"The number and consistency of the allegations lend them credibility," he said.
Despite attempts to improve conditions, Prof Morgan said that inspectors who returned in 2008 found police station conditions remained "unacceptable," with six forced to sleep in a cell without mattresses or blankets.
Campbell's brother Michael has been held in a prison in the country for more than two years in connection with the same offences.
The court heard that he is held in a cell with three others, allowed to shower only once a week and is forced to use a hole in the ground as a toilet.
CPT inspectors found that parts of Lukiskes Prison, where Liam Campbell is likely to be held, was "outrageously overcrowded," with six prisoners to a cell.
"In many of the cells, there was little room for any furniture apart from two triple or three double bunk beds," Prof Morgan said.
"Further, the waist-level partitions of the lavatories in most of the cells were not sufficient to provide any real privacy or to dispel the impression that prisoners were obliged to eat, sleep, indeed, to spend 23 hours of each day, in a space which also served as a lavatory."
The court heard that Prof Morgan and Campbell's lawyers have both been refused permission by the Lithuanian authorities to inspect prison conditions.
Raising concerns over Campbell's extradition, Prof Morgan concluded: "He would almost certainly experience inhuman or degrading treatment during an initial period of police custody, and very likely experience inhuman or degrading treatment in prison remand custody.
"There is also a risk that he would be the victim of inter-prisoner violence in prison custody."
The hearing will continue today.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/1023
Published Date: 23-Feb-10
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