Some of the ‘Hooded Men’ – pictured in 2018
By Julian O’Neill
BBC News NI home affairs correspondent
An apology from the Police Service of Northern Ireland has been issued to the so-called “Hooded Men” over their treatment under interrogation in 1971.
The 14 men were arrested during internment without trial and questioned by the police and the Army.
They have long-campaigned for an apology.
Image source, Pacemaker
Some of the ‘Hooded Men’ – pictured in 2018
Their case has been the subject of multiple legal actions in the UK and Europe for decades.
During interrogation at Ballykelly Army base, they were hooded, beaten, deprived of sleep, food and water and forced to stand in the stress position.
‘Seismic case’
On Tuesday morning, the surviving members of the group received an apology from the PSNI at a meeting in Belfast.
During the meeting it was disclosed that an apology had been hand delivered to Mr Joe Clarke before his death on Thursday.
Solicitor Darragh Mackin said the apology had come after “weeks of intense negotiation in which drew to a close in the days before Mr Joe Clarke tragically passed away”.
“I believed they weren’t going to let us out alive”
“This is a seismic development in a seismic case,” he said.
He said the case would be pointed to as the “pin up of due process, humanity and resolution coming together under one umbrella”.
“This case is an example of why the efforts by the British government to brush the legacy of the past under the carpet will never, and can never, work,” he added.
Image source, Brian Lawless/PA Wire
One of the men, Francis McGuigan, pictured in 2021
He also paid tribute to high ranking PSNI officers, particularly ACC Todd and head of Legacy Branch, Mr Ian Saunders who “despite the sensitivities engaged in an extensive negotiation, and against all odds, ensured the delivery of an apology before the passing of Mr Clarke”.
“The time is now for the government and Ministry Of Defence (MoD) to apologise for their part in these torture techniques. Today proves, nobody is above the law,” he added.
Background
Their case has been the subject of multiple legal actions in the UK and Europe for decades.
In 1976, the European Commission of Human Rights ruled that the five techniques used on the men amounted to torture.
This ruling was later referred to by the European Court of Human Rights in 1978, which held that the UK had carried out inhuman and degrading treatment, but fell short of defining it as torture.
In 2019, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, Northern Ireland’s most senior judge, said their treatment “would, if it occurred today, properly be characterised as torture”.
He said the ruling later by the Supreme Court in 2021 was “unbelievable”, but that it was tinged with sadness that some of the “Hooded Men” did not live to witness it.
