Coroner Finally Allowed To See The Truth
The coroner in charge of the inquests into the state killings of six County Armagh men in three separate shoot-to-kill incidents at the end of 1982 is to finally get access to the Stalker and Sampson reports.
All of the killings were the work of an RUC death squad, known as the Headquarters Mobile Support Unit.
The inquests were previously abandoned in 1994 when a former RUC chief constable refused to release the confidential reports. It was announced on Tuesday (December 4) that the coroner John Leckey is to be given access to the reports, which are estimated to contain over 65 boxes of documentation.
However, the access has only been granted under extremely strict conditions – the coroner will have to travel to read the documentation under supervision at a secure location, and he will not be able to share the details with anyone else - including lawyers representing the dead men's families.
In October, the coroner told a preliminary hearing that he was asking the legal representatives of the RUC-PSNI, "to confirm that I, my team and Mr Stalker and his team will be provided with access to the Stalker Report and that I, my team and Sir Colin Sampson will be provided with access to the Sampson Report".
It still remains unclear if the Stalker and Sampson teams will also be allowed access to their own reports.
What is certain, however, is that the families of the six dead men and the legal teams representing them will not be allowed to know the contents of the two highly secret reports, thereby putting them at a clear disadvantage when the inquests formally open in 2008.
It also emerged at Tuesday's brief hearing that the RUC-PSNI could still apply for Public Interest Immunity certificates, which would prevent material contained in the reports being made public.
Speaking outside the Coroner's court in Belfast, Tommy Carroll, a brother of one of the executed men, said:
"We would consider this announcement today to be a very positive development after all these years - it didn't have to take this long.”
"I would hope the (RUC-PSNI) chief constable and (British) secretary of state don't go down the road of issuing PII certificates."
Éirígí spokesperson Daithí Mac an Mháistír expressed support for the families.
“Éirígí fully support the campaign for truth and justice surrounding British state killings of Irish citizens.”
“There is no doubt that the British government and their surrogates in the RUC-PSNI have used every method in their arsenal to destroy the Irish struggle for independence, including shoot to kill and collusion with brutal pro British forces. It is an indictment upon the hollow institutions of law in order in Ireland that no case thus far has successfully brought those guilty within the RUC or the British establishment to justice for their war crimes.”
Daithí continued:
“It is also, however, inevitable that a pro-British system will not find pro-British government death squads guilty of a crime, forcing families to go to European institutions for answers.”
“The trend of killing and covering up is as obvious in this case as it has been in the any of the similar cases of the last 40 years and it is patently clear that the RUC-PSNI will continue to use any tactics necessary to hamper these families in their quest for the truth.
“Éirígí continues to support and be inspired by the campaigning families who, against the brick wall of the British justice system, strive to expose the realities of the British state’s role in the death of Irish citizens and their continued role of covering up these crimes.”