MEDIA FREE MARIAN PRICE END INTERNMENT WITHOUT TRIAL

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The 12th, Marian Price, gay issues... George Galloway talks tough in Belfast

By Jane Hardy
Thursday, 9 August 2012

George Galloway

•  ENLARGE

MP George Galloway has said that dissident republican Marian Price should be freed.

The politician was speaking last night at the Belfast Feile.

He told the West Belfast Talks Back session: “The courts freed Marian Price so she should be freed”, adding he did not support her “political line” and if she reoffended she should be charged and brought before the courts.

Mr Galloway then revealed he had just spoken to the 58-year-old prisoner, convicted of bombing the Old Bailey, while talking to her husband Jerry McGlinchey.

“I have just spoken to her on the phone for the first time and she's not a well woman,” he said. “For all the damning with faint praise, and Ruth Dudley Edwards' reference to her ‘remarkable recovery’ (after Price's 1973 hunger strike), the courts decreed she should be released and it's time to free Marian Price.”

Alongside Mr Galloway on the panel was a rainbow coalition of opinion-makers and politicians: DUP MP Gregory Campbell, author Ruth Dudley Edwards and Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly.

The first half of the debate discussed, without resolving, Syria and the Middle East question.

Opinion divided pretty much along sectarian lines, with Galloway and Kelly regarding Western inaction on Syria as hypocrisy and part of a ploy to destabilise Iran.

Gregory Campbell and Ruth Dudley Edwards, in different ways, pointed out the complexity of the situation and the fact that the situation after any Western intervention might not look better than before.

After broadening talk out to Israel and Palestine, Ms Edwards caused some hissing in the audience by suggesting the Feile might introduce an Israeli representative to “hear the other side”.

It then moved on to gay issues which led to some agonising from Mr Campbell, although his statement of concern that marriage between a man and a woman could be undermined by acceptance of the “lifestyle” of the lesbian and gay community received surprising support from George Galloway.

The Respect MP for West Bradford caused amusement by saying you couldn't promote homosexuality — “you either are or you aren't” — and adding that attendance at any number of Pride marches would not change his orientation.

The debate turned to recent trouble over July 12, with a discussion over whether the Orange Order should be banned following a band's misbehaviour and the singing of ‘The Famine Song’ outside a Catholic church.

Discussion was fierce, and intensified later between Messrs Campbell and Kelly over whether the former would ever shake hands with the latter.

You can only hope that these exchanges are in some way cathartic.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/the-12th-marian-price-gay-issues-george-galloway-talks-tough-in-belfast-16195641.html#ixzz23AQvzGTb

Reply to Owen Paterson on Marian Price - 

 Irish Independent  Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Sandy Boyer in a letter takes the North of Ireland's political boss to task over hisGuardian letter which fed disinformation on Marian Price

Owen Paterson, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, has written a letter to the editor of The Guardian (London) attempting to justify imprisoning Marian Price. I’ve included his letter below.

Paterson makes two essential points:

• That Marian Price was released on “license”, parole in American terms, which he had the right to revoke.
• That he does not have the legal right to release her because it can only be done by the Parole Commission.

Unfortunately for Mr. Paterson, neither is true.

He claims she received a royal pardon “the Royal Prerogative of Mercy” for a 20 year sentence related to the Old Bailey bombing but was on license for a life term for the same bombing.

If so, this would have been a strange and meaningless order. Granting a pardon for a 20 year sentence while simultaneously releasing someone on license from a life sentence would have achieved absolutely nothing.

If Mr. Paterson seriously believes the royal pardon doesn’t apply to Marian Price’s life sentence, all he has to do is produce it. Instead he states that the only copy of the pardon has been lost or shredded. Marian Price’s solicitor, Peter Corrigan, says that this is the only time in the entire history of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy that a pardon has gone missing.

Paterson also states that he can’t release Marian Price because “It would be outrageous for any secretary of state to do anything other than adhere strictly to the law.”

But the Life Sentences (NI) Order 2001 proclaimed by “Her Majesty” provides explicitly that “The Secretary of State may at any time release a life prisoner on licence if he is satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist which justify the prisoner’s release on compassionate grounds.”

There could hardly be more “compassionate grounds” for releasing Marian Price. United Nations doctors who examined her in July reported she was “unable to comprehend the allegations being made against her to sufficient degree to inform her defence” and that “she would be unable to follow the evidence in her own hearing as she lacks the ability to attend to detailed evidence”. She is presently hospitalized with pneumonia.

If Owen Paterson is serious about enforcing British law, he should release Marian Price immediately.

Sandy Boyer
Free Marian Price Campaign, US

Owen Paterson letter to The Guardian

You refer in your editorial (Northern Ireland: keep focused, 28 July) to the case of Marian McGlinchey (nee Price). I should be grateful for the opportunity to set out the facts.

Marian McGlinchey received two life sentences in 1973 for her part in the Old Bailey bombing. She was subsequently released on licence in 1980. At the same time she was granted the royal prerogative of mercy (RPM) in respect of a separate conviction which carried a 20-year fixed term sentence. The RPM did not cover her life sentences.

All life sentence prisoners remain on licence for life. They can be recalled at any time if they breach the conditions of their licence or pose a risk of serious harm to the public. A similar system was endorsed by the previous government in the legislation to give effect to the part of the Belfast Agreement that dealt with the early release of prisoners.

Before revoking a prisoner's licence under the Life Sentences (Northern Ireland) Order 2001, however, the secretary of state must first seek a recommendation from the wholly independent parole commissioners. This is what I did in the case of Marian McGlinchey; their recommendation was that she was in breach of her life licence. Consistent with my overriding responsibility in Northern Ireland for public safety, and in accordance with the law, she was returned to prison.

The independent parole commissioners are now reviewing the case in full. If they are satisfied that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that the prisoner should be confined, then they may direct the prisoner's release. The prisoner has full legal representation and can challenge the case made against her; Marian McGlinchey has yet to do this. The decision of the parole commissioners is final and cannot be overruled by the secretary of state.

It would be outrageous for any secretary of state to do anything other than adhere strictly to the law. Yet the clear inference in your editorial is that I should discard due process and interfere politically in this case. That would fatally undermine the rule of law in Northern Ireland. That is not something I am prepared to do.

Owen Paterson MP

Secretary of state for Northern Ireland