Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

Background:

Róisín McAliskey is a 35-year-old resident of Coalisland, Co. Tyrone. She is the daughter of civil rights activist and former Member of Parliament Bernadette Devlin McAliskey. Róisín is the mother of two young children, the first of whom was born while she was incarcerated without bail in England upon a prior German request for extradition in relation to a 1996 mortar attack by the Irish Republican Army on a British army base at Osnabruck, Germany.

Róisín McAliskey has always denied participating in the attack, and substantial evidence establishes that she was in Ireland, not in Germany, at the time of the attack. Less than one year after the attack, the chief witness for the proposed German prosecution could not identify Róisín McAliskey from a recent photograph.

In 1998, after international outcry, then British Home Secretary Jack Straw rejected the extradition request on the grounds that Róisín’s extradition would be \\"unjust and oppressive.\\" The Crown Prosecution Service subsequently found that there was insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution.

On Monday, May 21, 2007, the British government again arrested Róisín McAliskey on the basis of a new extradition demand by Germany pertaining to the Osnabruck attack. The extradition request was issued in October, but the British government did not act upon it for approximately seven months. The British government is proceeding with extradition proceedings despite the fact that it rejected Germany’s request to take over the prosecution because it had already determined there was insufficient evidence to try Róisín McAliskey in Britain. Fortunately, Róisín McAliskey was granted bail this time.

Ms. McAliskey has always denied involvement in the Osnabruck attack, and substantial evidence supports her innocence. She was in Ireland at the time of the attack. Within a few months of the attack, one of the chief prosecution witnesses, when interviewed on German television, was unable to identify Ms. McAliskey as a participant. Consistent with this state of evidence, the British government previously determined there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Ms. McAliskey in Britain. It rejected a request by Germany to take over the prosecution.