Star Chamber?
Feb. 11th, 2005 07:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickenfeetThis story in today's Grauniad about Sinn Fein involvement in Northern Ireland robberies causes me to ask why the British government doesn't just revive the court of Star Chamber?
To the best of my knowledge, armed robbery and conspiracy are still criminal offences on both sides of the Irish Sea. If the evidence is so strong that senior Sinn Fein officials were involved why have ordinary criminal charges not been brought? It's a basic right of an accused person to be able to challenge the evidence against them in open court and an equally basic right not to be subjected to a campaign of innuendo based on evidenceso dodgy it wouldn't stand up for a nano-second gathered by means the state is unwilling to divulge.
Don't get me wrong, I have no sympathy for the gangs of criminal psychopaths masquerading as politicians on either side of the divide in Northern Ireland. I'd love to see the lot of them busted but I apply the Bonhoeffer principle to this stuff; who's next for Comrade Clarke's gulag. I can only assume that the government has studied the key court cases of the Thatcher years, realised that trying people for "conspiracy with persons unknown" and the like will only see them laughed out of court and has decided to revert to earlier methods.
To the best of my knowledge, armed robbery and conspiracy are still criminal offences on both sides of the Irish Sea. If the evidence is so strong that senior Sinn Fein officials were involved why have ordinary criminal charges not been brought? It's a basic right of an accused person to be able to challenge the evidence against them in open court and an equally basic right not to be subjected to a campaign of innuendo based on evidence
Don't get me wrong, I have no sympathy for the gangs of criminal psychopaths masquerading as politicians on either side of the divide in Northern Ireland. I'd love to see the lot of them busted but I apply the Bonhoeffer principle to this stuff; who's next for Comrade Clarke's gulag. I can only assume that the government has studied the key court cases of the Thatcher years, realised that trying people for "conspiracy with persons unknown" and the like will only see them laughed out of court and has decided to revert to earlier methods.
