NOVANEWS
éirígí activists faced yet more harassment by the PSNI as they left a peaceful kerbside protest at the International Wall on the Falls Road in Belfast at the weekend.
Dozens of activists and supporters had gathered at the wall on Saturday (May 18) to show support and solidarity for their imprisoned comrade, Stephen Murney. Stephen has now been “interned by remand” in Maghaberry prison for almost six months at the behest of the PSNI.
As some activists left to attend a republican commemoration in the North Belfast area, a PSNI vehicle, part of a wider surveillance operation targeting the picket, followed the activists from the West of the city and on to the Antrim Road where their vehicle was forced to stop and pull over.
There the vehicle’s contents were ‘emptied’ onto the roadside and the occupants were subjected to body searches and questions about their movements and destination. It was clear that the intended stop and search was nothing more than an attempt to harass and delay those present. That fact became quite obvious as the PSNI searched only the boot of the car but nowhere else. They didn’t open a single car door or even look inside – all of which indicates a complete lack of genuine concern regarding the vehicle and its occupants.
At the roadside and in pouring rain, activists were spread-eagled by the PSNI as they were searched under ‘section 21’ and ‘section 24’ of the ‘Justice and Security Act’.
However, the PSNI soon found their ‘security operation’ being subjected to an unexpected intervention.
A legal professional who had been driving past the scene of the ‘stop and search’ stopped his own vehicle and began to question the legality of the PSNI’s actions, thereby forcing the PSNI to bring a swift end to their highly questionable activity on this occasion.
Delivering judgment in a recent court case at the Court of Appeal on Thursday 9th May, British Lord Justice Girvan identified the absence of a code of practice for stop and question operations under Section 21 of the above quoted act. He said the legal framework did not contain the kind of safeguards against potential abuse or arbitrariness envisaged by the European Court in Strasbourg.
In the aftermath of that judgment, such a code of practice was then rushed through Westminster on 15th May. Entitled a “Code of Practice for the Exercise of Powers in the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007”, it is supposed to provide, for PSNI officers exercising these draconian powers, a legal framework for operating and using the powers enclosed in the Justice and Security Act in question.
By completely ignoring this ‘Code of Practice’ on Saturday, the PSNI has signalled its intent to continue abusing ‘stop and search’ powers in the same manner they frequently did in the past.
From the British government’s viewpoint, the hasty introduction of the new ‘Code of Practice’ was not an exercise aimed at ensuring the protection of human rights but was a mere box-ticking exercise designed with the purpose of fore-stalling possible European examination of so-called ‘emergency’ laws in the Six Counties.
That was visibly demonstrated by the PSNI on Saturday.
Undeterred, but later than intended, the éirígí activists then made their way to their intended destination.
