BY MEGAN ARNEY
London announced March 9 it would not extradite Irish independence fighter Roísín McAliskey to Germany. McAliskey was arrested in November 1996 on trumped-up charges that she was involved in an Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing of British barracks in Germany in June of that year.

British home secretary Jack Straw said London's decision was based on medical grounds and to extradite McAliskey would be "unjust and oppressive."

Held for 16 months, without charges or a trial, McAliskey's case garnered international support. She was arrested in Northern Ireland, and was held in various British prisons since. Her health deteriorated as she was psychologically traumatized, strip-searched, and refused medical treatment although she was pregnant. She remains in a psychiatric hospital today, and still faces the possiblity of prosecution by London. Neither the British nor German governments offered any substantiated evidence against McAliskey. The one witness who is supposed to have identified her retracted his identification on German television.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein, the party leading the fight for a united Ireland, said they would not reenter the negotiations with London until they can meet with British prime minister Anthony Blair. The meeting, according to the Sinn Fein office in Washington, D.C., is set for March 12 in London. Sinn Fein had been a part of the negotiations until they were ousted after supposedly being connected with two killings in Northern Ireland last month. Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness will be on an East Coast tour of the United States March 11-18. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams will join him following the meeting with Blair.  
 
 
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