NIO WANTS �30,000 TO PROVIDE DOCUMENTS ABOUT OMAGH BOMB
NIO wants �30,000 to provide documents about Omagh bomb
I instructed my solicitor Des Doherty to proceed with Freedom of Information requests in the jurisdictions of Britain and Ireland on the Omagh bombing. On the eight anniversary of the bomb, I received a Northern Ireland Office unsigned letter from a Freedom of Information manager requesting �30,000 in order to identify and retrieve files held privately by the Northern Ireland Office.
By way of compromise through my solicitor, we requested that the Northern Ireland Office provide a list of what documents and files it had, so that I could decide what I needed and see if I could afford to pay. They refused my request and added they were not legally bound or obliged to do this as this would create new information.
So, in actual fact, the more you request from the NIO, the greater the burden they make it by creating new files.
As I do not know what files they have, we can only make a choice on seeing and selecting the relevant documents. But no, I would have to send them �30,000 to get the files. They, and only they, are the selection panel, gathering up information maybe not related to my case and censoring other information in the interests of state security.
We are not democratic, nor is the information free, which leaves it that only the rich can have access to justice and truth.
In all the controversy, tragedy and circumstances that surround the Omagh bomb and the death of my wife Libby and all those who lost loved ones, injured and maimed, it is disgusting and outrageous that I, as an O.A.P., should be asked to pay �30,000 for documents and files surrounding the murder of my wife, let alone the unsigned request for the fee on the very anniversary of her death.
I call upon the British and Northern Ireland government to release to me all the information I require and to waive the fee requested, in the spirit which, I hope, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 was intended to work.
Laurence Rush Omagh
I instructed my solicitor Des Doherty to proceed with Freedom of Information requests in the jurisdictions of Britain and Ireland on the Omagh bombing. On the eight anniversary of the bomb, I received a Northern Ireland Office unsigned letter from a Freedom of Information manager requesting �30,000 in order to identify and retrieve files held privately by the Northern Ireland Office.
By way of compromise through my solicitor, we requested that the Northern Ireland Office provide a list of what documents and files it had, so that I could decide what I needed and see if I could afford to pay. They refused my request and added they were not legally bound or obliged to do this as this would create new information.
So, in actual fact, the more you request from the NIO, the greater the burden they make it by creating new files.
As I do not know what files they have, we can only make a choice on seeing and selecting the relevant documents. But no, I would have to send them �30,000 to get the files. They, and only they, are the selection panel, gathering up information maybe not related to my case and censoring other information in the interests of state security.
We are not democratic, nor is the information free, which leaves it that only the rich can have access to justice and truth.
In all the controversy, tragedy and circumstances that surround the Omagh bomb and the death of my wife Libby and all those who lost loved ones, injured and maimed, it is disgusting and outrageous that I, as an O.A.P., should be asked to pay �30,000 for documents and files surrounding the murder of my wife, let alone the unsigned request for the fee on the very anniversary of her death.
I call upon the British and Northern Ireland government to release to me all the information I require and to waive the fee requested, in the spirit which, I hope, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 was intended to work.
Laurence Rush Omagh
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/1863
Published Date: 07-Sep-06
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