5 Tyrone men in isolation

A HUMAN rights group co-founded by one of the ‘Guildford Four’ has called for five Tyrone men to be granted requests to be moved from an isolated section of Maghaberry Prison into a designated republican wing.Gavin Coyle (36) of Culmore Park in Omagh, Thomas Hamill (41), Mark McGillowway (41) and Desmond Hamill (39), all from Dungannon, are currently being held in 23 hour lock up along with 49-year-old Austin Creggan from Pomeroy.Charged in connection with a republican arms find in east Tyrone, Gavin Coyle has been remanded in Maghaberry’s Care and Supervision Unit (CSU) since April 2011. The other four, who have all been sentenced for offences linked to dissident republican activity in Tyrone, have been held in the unit since 2012.Justice Watch Ireland (JWI) was set up in January by among others Gerry Conlon, who served 15 years after he was wrongly convicted of involvement in an IRA bombing campaign in England. The group have described Maghaberry’s CSU as “a short stay punishment facility”, stating it is “reminiscent of a Victorian prison regime” and not fit for long term confinement.Separated wings for republican and loyalist prisoners were established in Maghaberry’s Roe House in 2003 following the Steele report. Prisoners seeking to be housed there typically sign a separation compact.In a report issued on Friday, JWI states that despite requests to be housed in Roe House, Gavin Coyle was sent straight to CSU in 2011, with prison authorities informing him his life was under threat from republicans. “The republicans housed in Roe have denied Gavin is under threat and repeatedly asked that Gavin be housed on the wing,” states the report.The group also claim that MI5 and the PSNI made “numerous” attempts to recruit Coyle while in the unit.Issuing a number of recommendations, JWI has called for any prisoner who asks for and meets the criteria for separation be separated. It has also recommended no prisoner be housed for longer than three months in CSU confinement and no prisoner be subject to the advances of any state agency, without the presence of their legal representatives.JWI has also called for the end of “the degrading process of strip searching”.“To refuse them the right of separation, may be legally construed as an act of discrimination,” states the group. “The continuing confinement of the five prisoners in the CSU, indefinitely, may be in breach of International and domestic law and UK prison guidelines.“The long term isolation of prisoners from each other without meaningful activities, such as education and exercise and little access to natural sunlight, is reminiscent of a Victorian prison regime, not one that exists in the 21st century.”

- See more at: http://ulsterherald.com/2013/11/19/human-rights-group-investigates-tyrone-prisoners-held-in-isolation/#sthash.a7hlpDvd.dpuf
http://ulsterherald.com/2013/11/19/human-rights-group-investigates-tyrone-prisoners-held-in-isolation/