Report on Owen Rice in the High Court

national | anti-war / imperialism | news report Thursday February 26, 2004 19:53 by Court Reporter - Free the Black Pope

Black Pope Challenges Bail Conditions

Report on Owen Rice's High Court appearence, 25 Feb

Background: Owen was arrested at 6am before the action at Shannon on Dec 6th. He was held for 12 hours before being released on 5 (five) euro bail by District Judge Joseph Mangan. After a number of other appearances (all in front of the same judge) at which his bail was continued, he appeared in Shannon Court on Feb 12. Judge Mangan decided, at his own initiative, to add an additional bail condition that Owen was not to enter the County of Clare. He refused to give a reason for adding this conditiopn and Owen refused to accept it. Owen has been in Limerick prison on hunger strike ever since.

On Wednesday 25 Feb Owen appeared in the High Court in Dublin to challenge his detention. He applied under Article 40 of the Constitution, claiming that the detention was illegal. The defendent in this case was the Governor of Limerick Prison, as he is the person detaining Owen.

Justice Finnegan refused to release Owen on the grounds that the governor had a court order instructing him to detain Owen and was therefore acting legally in doing so. He said that if Owen wished to challenge the validity of the court order (what he was effectively trying to do), he had to apply for Judicial Review. He refused to release him on bail on the grounds that he had bail (Owen can come out of prison at any time but only if he accepts Judge Mangan's conditions).

Owen has the option to apply to the High Court for Bail on Monday or to lodge a Judicial Review, also likely to be heard Monday.

Owen will be in court in Ennis on Friday 27th Feb and may well be back in the High Court on Monday 1st March

There will be a national day of action in solidarity with Owen this Saturday (28th Feb). Events known so far are:

Limerick: Vigil outside Limerick Prison, 3pm.
Dublin: Meet at the Ha'penny Bridge 1pm
Galway: Stall on Shop St 10-12

Feel free to add other events around the country as comments to this article.