BY NORTON SANDLER
SAN FRANCISCO-In a 2-to-1 decision, a federal appeals
court here on October 9 reversed the extradition order against
three Irish nationalist prisoners being held in a California
prison. The court sent the case back to the Federal District
court, saying Terry Kirby, Kevin Barry Artt, and Pol Brennan
were eligible for a new extradition trial.
The three men were arrested by the FBI in California between 1992 and 1994. They were among 38 Irish Republican prisoners who escaped from the "H-blocks" of Long Kesh prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1983.
Along with Jimmy Smyth, who was extradited to Northern Ireland in 1996, they became known as the H-Block 4. U.S. officials pressed for the extradition of the H-Block 4 under terms of a 1986 treaty with the government of the United Kingdom.
The four were originally tried in Diplock courts-that is non-jury trials. Their cases have received prominent attention in both the United States and Ireland. Smyth is expected to be released from prison in Northern Ireland soon along with other Republican prisoners under the terms of the recent peace accords.
Kirby was convicted of killing a gas station attendant during an alleged 1978 Irish Republican Army attack. Artt was convicted of killing a police officer in 1983, and Brennan was convicted of possessing an illegal firearm and explosive device in 1977.
In overturning the deportation order against Kirby and Artt, the three-judge federal appeals panel ruled that U.S. District Court Judge Charles Legge, who presided at their extradition trial, did not give proper consideration to the defendants' arguments that British authorities used coerced testimony to convict them in their original trials in Northern Ireland.
"The existence of bias is not always readily apparent from an individualized inquiry, particularly where, as in Northern Ireland, procedural safeguards have been eliminated," the appeals ruling stated. "After all, a trial judge or detective is unlikely to memorialize the fact that his or her decisions were motivated by political or religious bias."
The court said the defendants must be given a chance to demonstrate whether prejudicial conduct by police, prosecutors, or judges biased their original trials.
In Brennan's case, the appellate court ruled that the crime he was convicted of -possession firearms - is not an extraditable offense under the terms of the 1986 treaty.
Attorneys for Kirby, Artt, and Brennan are expected to press for bail for the three.
John Fogarty, regional vice president of the Irish- American Unity Conference, which has spearheaded the defense of the three, told Militant, "We view this an important decision because it permits us to bring to the world the case of the Irish people and the Diplock Courts.
"The judges properly took note of the deficiency of the convictions in these cases, the lack of safeguards in the British judicial system in Northern Ireland," he said.
"The four cases examined by the courts in San Francisco were disgraceful," Fogarty added. "This should cause alarm about the cases of the tens of thousands of others who also pass through the same system."
Norton Sandler is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 1781.