| James Brosnahan, lead lawyer for Kevin
Barry Artt, one
of the H-Block Three, was highly critical of the US Government last week for continuing to support the extradition of his client to an area where Catholics are killed for sport. Brosnahan also lashed out at Ulster Unionist Party chief David Trimble, saying he should keep his hands off the American legal system. The comments came as a Californian court agreed to hear on April 14th the extradition appeals of Artt, Terry Kirby and Pol Brennan. The three Belfast men, who have lived with their American wives and families on the West Coast for more than 13 years, had escaped in 1983, along with 35 other Irish political prisoners, from Long Kesh prison outside Belfast. In the United States, the H-Block Three are the subject of an intensifying letter-writing campaign supported by Irish Northern Aid and other republican support groups. The court has consolidated the three appeals and will allow 20 minutes for the lawyers to present their cases. A ruling on the motion is expected before April 14th, but Brosnahan warns that a decision on the appeals could take days or months. The appeal date was set just as a court in the North of Ireland agreed to a retrial of Lee Clegg, a British-army private found guilty of the 1990 murder of a teen-aged girl in Belfast. The girl, Karen Reilly, was shot dead while a passenger in a joy-riding stolen car. Last week, a Belfast court quashed Clegg's conviction. He has been free since July 1995, having served two years of a 1993 life sentence in the murder. After his release, Clegg rejoined the British army -- as a physical-fitness instructor. Brosnahan was highly critical of David Trimble, the MP for Upper Bann, who recently urged President Clinton at a White House meeting to push ahead with the extraditions. Brosnahan says that "Artt is a pawn in a (political) game that is way over our heads." "Mr. Trimble talked in the White House with Bill Clinton about this case. I don't know what Clinton promised him, but that conversation should never have taken place," says Brosnahan. "Trimble is not a head of state," Brosnahan continued. "He's just a politician, and if he received something there, that's wrong. Mr. Trimble should not be involved in our court system. He's got enough trouble taking care of things in northern Ireland. He shouldn't be telling us what our courts should do." The three Belfast men are being held in the Federal Detention Center in Pleasanton, California. Kirby is in a separate wing from Brennan and Artt. All three surrendered to authorities last August 22nd, after a request to have extradition proceedings against them dropped was denied. Brosnahan also lashed out at the British government, saying, "The British are pretending to be interested in a meaningful peace. They don't have any policy but to continue to run things as they have." Artt's lawyer said he was deeply concerned that there won't be any peace, and that it was not reasonable to send the three back under such circumstances. "It is obvious, having viewed the random killing of Catholics in Belfast recently, that this is unreconstructed violence, dangerous government- and police-supported murder in a country they seek to return my client to, where they have tried to kill my client at least two times that we know of." Brosnahan also lashed out at the US Government for allowing the extradition proceedings to go on. "It's unconscionable for the powerful people in this country to put a man on a plane to send him back to a place where they kill Catholics on a Saturday night for sport." Brosnahan criticised the US Government, saying, "They don't listen, they don't care, they are callous." |