In 1981, the wishes of hunger strikers, including IRA prisone... on Twitpic:
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In 1981, the wishes of hunger strikers, including IRA prisoner Bobby Sands MP, were respected and doctors supervised political death-fasts in Occupied Ireland by political prisoners demanding their international rights as Irish POWs refused by Margaret Thatcher. However Marian Price and her sister Dolours Price who were on hunger strike for 200 days were force fed 400 times while their comrades Michael Gaughan andFrank Stagg died, which Marian described as follows:
“Four male prison officers tie you into the chair so tightly with sheets you can’t struggle,” says Price. “You clench your teeth to try to keep your mouth closed but they push a metal spring device around your jaw to prise it open. They force a wooden clamp with a hole in the middle into your mouth. Then, they insert a big rubber tube down that. They hold your head back. You can’t move. They throw whatever they like into the food mixer – orange juice, soup, or cartons of cream if they want to beef up the calories. They take jugs of this gruel from the food mixer and pour it into a funnel attached to the tube. The force-feeding takes 15 minutes but it feels like forever. You’re in control of nothing. You’re terrified the food will go down the wrong way and you won’t be able to let them know because you can’t speak or move. You’re frightened you’ll choke to death. “Most modern doctors conclude that forcible feeding is a form of torture. The intention, however by the British to cover situations in which prisoners are repeatedly tortured and have attempted to die by hunger-strike to avoid the continuation of their torture. Just as doctors are sometimes advised not to revive Irish political prisoners simply to allow their torture to continue, they are advised not to force-feed prisoners so that they can be maltreated and interrogated. The European Convention on Human Rights prohibits “degrading” treatment in Article 3. The patient’s right to refuse treatment should be respected.
In 1980 Marian Price received the Royal Prerogative of Mercy and was freed on humanitarian grounds after suffering from anorexia nervosa in 1981, as a direct result of being force fed by the British. Marian Price a vocal opponent of the Bad Friday Agreement has said: “It is not, certainly not, what I went to prison for.” On 15 May 2011, the un-elected Secretary of State for Occupied Ireland Owen Paterson smashed the Peace agreement and broke the Royal Prerogative by revoking her release from prison.
Her detention has been described as ‘de facto internment’ by Provisional Sinn Fein. Marian was imprisoned in solitary confinement in the all male prison of Maghaberry for what the British have termed operational reason but what was subsequently leaked, that in fact the British intended to force feed Marian again in the hospital wing of the prison, where she was politically interned in solitary confinement for 300 days of what the UN have called torture.
Marian’s lawyer, Peter Corrigan has told a court: “As part of that application we had written to the NIO seeking a copy of the actual pardon that was conferred on the defendant in 1981. To this date the NIO still have not served that important document on us, and it is central to us making an abuse of process application.”
The defence case is that terms of the pardon covered all of the offences for which Price was convicted in 1974, Mr Corrigan added. Her lawyers are seeking to establish there was no power for the pardon to be revoked. The judge emphasized that any documents required for a defence should be provided by the British who are accused of abuse of process as usual in Occupied Ireland. Meanwhile Marian’s other comrades continue to be tortured daily under the pretence of strip searching in the British gaol.
Twice, a judge with the precise same intelligence reports as the English Secretary of State ordered she be released on bail immediately as she was no threat to the public. The 58 year old Marian has publicly stated her days as a militant activist are long gone but she cannot condemn young people who fight to remove the British criminals from Occupied Ireland. However each and every time the Queen's unelected Englishman has overruled the judge and ordered Marian Price be interned without trial. His excuse was that he was revoking her parole but Marian was not on parole because she received a royal pardon or the "Royal Prerogative of Mercy" when she was freed in 1980. She was then at death's door from a hunger strike. She was force-fed more than 400 times on a hunger strike.
This unelected English autocrat in Occupied Ireland now says that the much publicized pardon which was common knowledge "cannot be located," that it either has been lost or shredded. Marian's lawyer Peter Corrigan told a public meeting that it is the only time in the history of Royal Prerogatives of Mercy that a pardon has been mislaid. Monsignor Raymond Murray a respected veteran human rights campaigner and spiritual chaplain, said, "You can draw your own conclusions." Marian has been in solitary confinement for more than 300 days. The UN Spokesperson on Torture has said solitary confinement for more than 15 days is torture. Marian is locked in her cell 21 hours a day with a camera. She has no privacy because prison staff constantly go in and out of her cell. Male prison guards shine a light in her face at night so she can't sleep.
Marian says she feels like she is "in a zoo." Her husband, Jerry McGlinchey, says that he is "very, very worried" about her health. She has never recovered from her previous force-feeding, she suffers from such severe arthritis that she can't open her hand. He believes her health will get worse while she is in solitary confinement. The Irish civil rights leader Bernadette Devlin McAliskey has told a meeting in Belfast, "From the government's point of view it is a clear message that no dissent will be tolerated. You challenge the status quo at your peril."
This internment without trial coupled with British sponsored or mentored murder of Human rights lawyers in occupied Ireland, along with blanket censorship, political paramilitary policing, prisoner torture has made post process Occupied Ireland a brutal military state for Irish people in their own land.
Marian Price may be a political prisoner of conscience in a British hell hole in Occupied Ireland for the rest of her life without the help of people who care. She is not the only one there are many more political prisoners of conscience in Ireland who were brave enough to speak out against British brutality and occupation.
This unelected English tyrant in Ireland, Owen Paterson can be e-mailed at patersono@parliament.uk to tell him to free Marian Price immediately. You may alsO Organise, Agitate, Educate by going to a Bernadette McAliskey VIDEO AND OTHER IMPORTANT LINKS - http://bit.ly/MarianPriceLinks
