Continuation of the McGeough/McAnespie Trial

Tonight the Pensive Quill carries an update by guest writer Helen McClafferty on the ongoing trial of Gerry McGeough. She concentrates on the Swedish angle.

November 4th

The Swedish Government Needs To Be Held Accountable For Their Disgraceful Collusion With The British Government. First time observers at Gerry's trial today said they were left stunned at the proceedings. One shocked on-looker even described it as a "pure political show-trial".

The main focus of attention today was Swedish Immigration official Helen Hedebris, who proved herself to be more British than the British themselves with her constant reference to "here in Britain" when speaking about the North of Ireland. At one point Hedebris, who was a prosecution witness, went into Margaret Thatcher mode when she called the shooting of British soldiers in the context of the Irish Troubles as nothing more than a crime and actions that couldn't be remotely described as "political".

Hedebris spent much of her time in the witness box reading out tracts from a 1983 Political Asylum application that was allegedly lodged by Gerry when he supposedly sought refugee status in Sweden.

Having heard the contents, the trial judge is now going to rule on whether or not they are admissible for his consideration. Only a Diplock court could provide such wondrous conflict of interest.

Ironically, under British law, Political Asylum applicants are guaranteed that their documents will be kept confidential and under no circumstances handed over to the authorities in the country they may be fleeing from. The prosecution argued that this doesn't apply to material from Sweden-and Hedebris showed herself eager to agree with them.

The Swedish woman was in her element in the Diplock Court setting. Visibly excited at being "one of the team", on-lookers said "she was beside herself as she mingled with RUC/PSNI detectives and prosecution functionaries".

Without this Swedish input, Gerry would now be a free man.

The Swedish Government's collusion with the British government to convict Gerry McGeough at any cost needs to be immediately condemned by everyone.

In their obsessive need to prosecute and imprison this Irishman, the British obviously were prepared to turn international political asylum refugee laws on their head. This move today now has widespread implications for the entire concept of political asylum and should now become a major Human Rights issue and we all have an obligation to make it such!

Swedish Civil Servant Helen Hedebris, believed to be fanatically pro-British, obviously has been working in close collaboration with the RUC/PSNI over the years and her testimony today for the prosecution, against Gerry in a Diplock trial, was disgraceful and the Swedish government should hang their head in shame today.

There should be worldwide outrage at the fact that confidential political asylum application papers were used as "evidence" in the discredited Diplock Court system in the North of Ireland. Today's action is a stain on Sweden's otherwise excellent record in the area of international Human Rights. The Swedish government must now be held accountable for this.

November 5, 2010

To no great surprise the Diplock Court trial judge today "ruled" that Political Asylum application papers from Sweden are admissible as "evidence" against Gerry.

The move by Judge Ben Stevens, an Englishman and reputed senior freemason, reflects the growing blatant determination by the British authorities to have Gerry convicted and railroaded into jail as soon as possible.

Gerry remains equally determined in his views that the British have no right to occupy any part of Ireland and that they should get out as soon as possible.


6 comments:

  1. Mackers ive read that the gasyard debate can be viewed online.Have you any idea where?

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  2. Helen has Hedebris broken any Swedish law by revealing the details of this alleged asylum application,I e-mailed the Swedish pm at the site you left at an earlier post asking this but suprise suprise I never got a reply,if not then her remarks in the dock are clearly politicaly biased and hopefully they have been challanged by Gerry,s defense team,as you have stated this is a political show trial and therefore the outcome has already been predetermined,evidence is neither here nor there but just for the optics,I have stated before many times I think that the nightmare Gerry is being put through is a warning to all those opposed to the so called peace process and in praticular republicans opposed to psf.I,m hoping that I,m right for Gerry and his families sake and this case will be thrown out,

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  3. Helen,

    I know it shouldn't but it kinda takes the gloss of our recent visit to Stockholm

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  4. marty,
    "has Hedebris broken any Swedish law by revealing the details of this alleged asylum application"

    No Marty. Not to our knowledge.
    The Swedish government did not reply to ANY emails, faxes, letters or phone calls. People were very kind in reaching out to them on behalf of Gerry, but they took an arrogant stance by not acknowledging any type of correspondence.

    We also contacted Swedish newspapers, radio stations and various Swedish blogs and we were completely shut-out on the subject matter.

    We wrote to various Human Rights organizations over the years and were told " they are monitoring the case/trial" but it never went further than that?

    Even the Irish-American newspapers wouldn't cover any of the case/trial? They would not print any "letters to the editor" having to do with McGeough/McAnespie?

    I had to personally purchase 1/2 and full page ads in the Irish Echo and the Irish Voice in NY in order to get the information out about Gerry. Disgraceful. So, as you can see, the British gov't and PSF have made tremendous in-roads in the USA as well. Although, lately, attendance at the last "free" venues in New York area were very poorly attended when McGuinness,and then later Maskey and O'Hare where here this past year?

    It is a sad state of affairs and takes me back to times prior to the GFA when Irish republicans didn't have a prayer (no offense intended - lol) in getting justice from the Brits. What has changed?

    Their was an article in the New York Times today 11/17) where the Swedish gov't critized the European Court of Human Rights for not giving Iraqi asylum- seekers priority and stopped the deportation of 40 Iraqi asylum-seekers?

    They have now become as two-faced as the British government.

    AM,
    That's a shame, isn't it? I always held them in high esteem for their human rights work.

    I still don't get it?

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  5. goosey goosey gander.

    It was on Youtube but was taken down for some reason

    Helen,

    I heard that people in the Stats were dropping off in response to the nonsense they were coming out with.

    Sweden has moved to the right in recent years. Maybe that explains matters to some extent.

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  6. http://republican-news.org/archive/1999/December16/16mcge.html
    Oh how times have changed cut and paste and see how one can go from Hero to Zero

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