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Stephen Murney rilasciato con la condizionale

Stephen Murney released on bail as judge retires to make trial decision

Stephen Murney a casa con la famiglia
éirígí party member Stephen Murney was this evening re-united with his family and friends after the judge conducting his trial released him on bail.

The dramatic twist occurred late this afternoon at the conclusion of oral submissions by both the prosecution and defence on what was the fifth day of hearings in the case.

At the end of those submissions, the judge said she would consider a bail application from the defence as it was unlikely that she would be in a position reach a decision in the case until 17th February.

In contrast to all other bail applications made since Stephen’s arrest in 2012, the judge then released Stephen on a personal surety of £200 and an independent surety of £1,000, along with several conditions including a night-time curfew.

The more draconian conditions imposed by previous courts which included wearing an electronic tag, not being allowed to enter Newry city for any reason and having to reside at an address at least 12 miles from Newry were gone.

This afternoon’s developments took place on the fifth day of trial.

Yesterday (Monday 27th January), the judge announced her decision in respect of last Thursday’s application by the defence for all charges to be struck out. She then dismissed that application.

Following that decision, the defence case began in the afternoon with Stephen entering the witness-box to give evidence on his own behalf.

At the end of his evidence, the prosecution stated they were seeking a disclosure ruling before another judge prior to their cross-examination of Stephen.

That application was heard before a second judge in another court on Tuesday morning and it became apparent very quickly that the prosecution was actually attempting to have material introduced which related to other charges that had been dismissed last November. The judge refused their application.

The scene then moved back to the original court-room where Stephen was intensely cross-examined by the prosecution throughout the morning.

After lunch, a closing submission was made by the prosecution.

The defence submission followed with the judge being alerted to the wider political and human rights implications regarding the charges against Stephen including possible infringements of his rights under Articles 7 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Article 10 expressly states that, “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”

Given Stephen’s membership of a political party and his position within the party as a local public relations officer, his defence case was that the photographs which the charges related to were ones taken in the course of legitimate political activities and which had been used to accompany party news stories and party press releases to the local media.

As such, the charges relate directly to the expression of a particular political viewpoint.

Both the judge and prosecution were clearly taken aback at the reference to Article 10 in particular, with the prosecution stating that they had not expected or prepared for such a legal argument.

Further legal arguments took place with the judge then setting out a schedule for the prosecution and defence to present final written submissions to the court regarding the various points of law that had been raised.

As it was approaching the court’s closing time, the judge then stated that, as it would clearly take some considerable time to deliberate on her decision, that she would accept a bail application. Her statement came as a total surprise to Stephen’s family, friends and comrades in the public gallery.

Shortly after 5pm, Stephen Murney walked out of Laganside court-house accompanied by his family along with several party comrades and a number of his friends.

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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