26 January 2022
A high-profile US lawyer, known for her work representing torture survivors, has said the Special Criminal Court should be abolished. Nancy Hollander is best known for her work with Guantanamo Bay inmates and was portrayed by Jodie Foster in the Netflix film The Mauritanian. Ms Hollander has also worked at the Special Criminal Court and was speaking alongside torture survivor Osgur Breatnach, an innocent man who was convicted at the Special Criminal Court.
Ms Hollander said:
“Everyone is entitled to a fair trial, no matter what they stand accused of. If we believe in the justice system at all, then we have to believe it will deliver justice even in the most difficult of cases. Special courts undermine the justice system, in turn undermining the bedrock of our democratic societies.”
The Special Criminal Court is a non-jury court, where the accused can be convicted of membership of an illegal organisation based on the belief of the gardaí. The DPP has an extremely broad power to refer a person to the Special Criminal Court without giving reasons, except for vague grounds such as “national security”. This means our right to a fair trial by jury is entirely dependent on the discretion of the DPP. The UN Human Rights Committee has long called for the Court to be abolished because it violates fair trial rights.
Osgur Breatnach was one of four men wrongfully accused and convicted – on the basis of confessions extracted under torture – of carrying out the Sallins Train Robbery in 1976. To this day, there has never been a public inquiry into how this dreadful miscarriage of justice occurred.
Mr Breatnach said:
“I have faced injustice after injustice. At one trial, one of the judges slept through most of it. The Courts didn’t find that unfair. When he died a new trial was ordered, the Courts continued to blatantly ignore fair trial standards. The State said that I had beaten myself up – that was supposedly how I’d gotten the injuries they had inflicted on me. Once the Court accepted that as the truth, it confirmed my view I didn’t stand a chance in the Special Criminal Court.”
Ms Hollander and Mr Breatnach were speaking at an event run by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL). ICCL has called for the abolition of the Court since our inception in 1976. It is a stain on our justice system and has no place in a peaceful democracy. This event was held in anticipation of the 50-year independent review of the “temporary” court in April. At the event, ICCL gathered signatures on a letter calling for abolition to the Minister for Justice.
ENDS/
Join the event here (link valid to 8pm on 26 January): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88658359378?pwd=c0kvNVJybUVWY05Cd2doQWliOEZjQT09
Read ICCL’s submission to the Independent Review Group: https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ICCL-submission-to-Review-of-the-Special-Criminal-Court.pdf
Nancy Hollander is a practising US defence lawyer. Her practice includes defence in complex multi-jurisdiction cases, including representation of two prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and as lead counsel for Chelsea Manning in her appeal and clemency. Nancy helped secure the release of Mohamedou Ould Salahi, who was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years without charge. This was fictionalised in the award-winning film, The Mauritanian. She is the only person to have ever worked on terrorist trials in the US and the Special Criminal Court.
Osgur Breatnach is an award-winning writer, poet, filmmaker, political advisor and activist. He and 3 other men were wrongfully convicted in the Special Criminal Court in the Sallins Train Robbery case. In time, found innocent and released from jail, they have been seeking a public inquiry into their treatment by the State.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) is Ireland’s oldest independent human rights campaigning organisation. We monitor, educate and campaign to secure human rights for everyone in Ireland.
For comment: Nancy Hollander, Osgur Breatnach, or Doireann Ansbro, Head of Legal and Policy at ICCL
For media queries: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie