Mary Kelly Case Adjourned

national | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Wednesday June 16, 2004 16:44

by ireland.com

The retrial of an anti-war activist accused of causing an estimated €1.5 million damage to a US navy plane at Shannon airport has been adjourned.

The case of mother-of-four Ms Mary Kelly (51) was adjourned by Judge Moran at Ennis Circuit Court after one of the key prosecution witnesses missed his flight from America.

The Athlone nurse is accused of attacking the Boeing 737 plane with an axe on January 29th, 2003 causing criminal damage. She is also charged with trespass on the same date. She denies the charges.

Earlier, the jury of eight women and four men was sworn in. In the absence of the jury, legal argument took place this afternoon. The case is expected to last for six or seven days.

It is the second time that Ms Kelly — a mother of four — has gone on trial for the alleged attack on the plane. Last July, after a four-day trial, the jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict after deliberating for five hours on the criminal damage charge.

She was remanded on continuing bail and the trial has been adjourned a number of times since.

An ex-US Attorney General, Mr Ramsey Clark and a former assistant Secretary General of the UN, Mr Denis Halliday are expected to testify on behalf of Ms Kelly. Both gave evidence at the previous trial in July.

Five other anti-war activists are facing charges of criminal damage on the same plane five days after Ms Kelly's alleged attack and their trial is expected to take place in Dublin Circuit Court in the Autumn.

A crowd of 50 anti-war activists gathered outside Ennis courthouse today in support of Ms Kelly.

save preference

Comments (6 of 6)

That is good news

by jeff

Wed Jun 16, 2004 17:10

Axe wielding nurses sound scary, but Mary Kelly is no ordinary axe wielding nurse. So, if she keeps getting adjourned, the likelyhood is that she will get a suspended sentence, that will cause a right wing journalist from the Sindo/star/irish sun/ to start frothing at the mouth and get a heart attack.

It is a win/win situation.

...to fight another day....

by redjade

Wed Jun 16, 2004 20:04

Good news! sort of, it also means that Mary has more time to bring others in for her defense - so everyone needs to donate money to her effort to help her case.

It also allows Mary to continue you good cause to expose the Irish Gov't complicity in the US/K War In Iraq.

Mary deserves all our support!

- - - - -
Definition of adjourned.
ad·journ ( P ) Pronunciation Key (-jûrn)
v. ad·journed, ad·journ·ing, ad·journs
v. tr.
To suspend until a later stated time.

v. intr.
To suspend proceedings to another time or place.

Denial ain't Just a River in Egypt!

by Denial

Thu Jun 17, 2004 00:38

The first comment that MK is likely to get a suspended sentence if convicted is way off mark. Would the state expend all this money on a retrial and let her walk. methinks not.

Sounds like a peace movement full of denial.

State's witness, a pilot, missed his flight

by Eoin Dubsky

Thu Jun 17, 2004 11:07

The prosecution doesn't need the pilot to attend, for the court to believe that Mary isn't the owner of the aircraft and didn't have the owner's permission to damage it. And yet they're wasting everyone's time now saying "oh our friend the US Navy pilot missed his flight, can we come back tomorrow?"... One of Mary Kelly's expert witnesses has to return home to the States in a few days time, so its likely that the prosecution are using their pilot friend to drag on their "case" against her...
Basically, they don't have a case against her though, and they know that. The issue is whether or not damaging the plane was "excusable" or "reasonable" under the circumstances as she understood them to be at the time (i.e. was there a great enough threat to human life or property in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere being posed by the United States Armed Forces... and was damaging a warplane a reasonable action to do considering that warplanes are an essential tool for modern warfighting and planning... answer: yes). For that defence to work the jury don't even have to hear about the criminality of the planned invasion of Iraq, the embargo on Iraq, and other US foreign policy enforced with the help of such US Navy aircraft. However under S. 18 of the Non-fatal offences against the person act, 1997, (http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA26Y1997S18.html) there are a couple of defences which she could use to also bring in the important issue of America's criminal conduct in international affairs.

She acted in good faith. She tried to stop a warplane for good. I wish I had her courage when I spray-painted that USAF warplane in Shannon five months earlier.

Dylan shows his solidarity with Mary Kelly by bloacking Dáil Éireann

Thu Jun 17, 2004 17:04

Ireland's most political dog.

Dylan

Mary Kelly

by Dr Raeder Anderson - Independent

Sat Jun 26, 2004 18:09

raeder1a at yahoo dot com

Let this woman go; she obviously has more courage than most men and women in the USA, or Ireland. Reprimand her for vandalism, perhaps, but let this good woman go in peace... and axe no more!.

Number of comments per page

Upcoming Events

New Events

Other Press

User Preferences

Feeds

Blog Feeds

The Saker

Public Inquiry

Human Rights in Ireland

Lockdown Skeptics

Mary Kelly Case Adjourned

Comments (6 of 6)