Seán Garland and Natural Justice: Some Personal Thoughts

As many readers of this site will be aware, on Friday January 30th 2009, Seán Garland, former General Secretary and former President of The Workers’ Party of Ireland was arrested outside the Party’s headquarters in Dublin, on foot of an extradition warrant from the United States. Since then, he has been in gaol, but a bail hearing has now been scheduled for Wednesday February 11th. As most readers will probably also know, this is not the first time that Seán Garland has been arrested at the behest of the Americans. In October 2005, he was arrested at the 2005 Workers’ Party Ard Fheis in Belfast, and an attempt was made to extradite him the next morning under the 2003 US-UK Extradition Treaty, which provides little or no opportunity for the accused to challenge the extradition in the courts. Opposition to the Treaty – which was never brought before Parliament – in Britain ranged from George Galloway to Boris Johnson, so blatantly unfair were its provisions. The campaign against Seán Garland’s extradition had wide-ranging support from politicians, trade unionists and other public figures. Permitted to travel for medical treatment to Dublin, looking at the absence of legal protection under the Treaty, Seán Garland decided not to return to Northern Ireland, issuing a statement explaining his decision. At all times, he maintained both his innocence, and his willingness to meet Gardaí at any time, informing them of this through his legal representatives. He continued to live at home and to carry out his public political activities, including attending meetings with members of the Oireachtas.

Why then should people care about this case? In a word, Justice. Seán Garland will be 75 in March, and in ill-health. He suffers from diabetes, and has been receiving treatment for bowel cancer. The persecution of someone in his condition violates the natural sense of justice and equity, and the empathy for others, inherent in all humanity. The principles of natural justice dictate that not only should he get bail, but that the government put an end to the proceedings against him.

The inhumane nature of the pursuit comes as no surprise when we consider its source. It is no accident that it was the Bush regime that sought the extradition of Seán Garland. This regime, with the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians on its hands in pursuit of its neo-con ideology and determination to reshape the entire planet in its own image, sought to use generalised allegations against an Irish revolutionary socialist as part of its policy on the Korean peninsula. The supposed case against Seán Garland has been based on exactly the same type of “evidence” that launched the war on Iraq in pursuit of non-existent weapons of mass destruction. We should remember Bush’s laughable Axis of Evil, and that it stopped being so ridiculous as the first bombs fell on Iraq. Seán Garland was first arrested at a time of major tension in the Korean peninsula, and one need only look at the use made of these allegations in the media (such as by the contemptible and Washington Times owned by people with a long history of acting in concert with the CIA over Korea), the US Congress, and by neo-con think-tanks to see that this was part of a concerted propaganda drive to try and influence the six-party talks and prepare US opinion for possible military action on the Korean peninsula. The failures of the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the accomplishment of an agreement in the six-party talks despite the Bush regime’s hosility and feet-dragging that left it isolated from its allies in the region thankfully ensured no military action was taken.

The current request for extradition was signed personally by Condeelza Rice on November 21st 2008 after the election of President Obama made it clear that the American people rejected the disastrous Bush years and opened the way for a new era in foreign relations with regimes opposed to the US from Korea to the Caribbean. Tensions on the Korean peninsula had been rising since the April election of an aggressive new President in south Korea, and only 9 days before Rice signed the extradition request, communication links between the two states had been cut. The continued persecution of Seán Garland, therefore, was a desperate and vindictive attempt by the discredited and bloodthirsty neo-cons to ensure that their policy continued to exist after their demise, like a political vampire. They hoped to use the charges against Seán Garland to limit the freedom of action of the new regime in Korea by provoking hostility there, and thus damage the chances for a permanent peace that would end any prospect of the neo-cons’ longed-for regime change. Just as in 2005, the US is seeking to use the courts of another country to extradite Seán Garland, knowing full well that a man with his politics can never receive a fair trial there. Once again, this would be a violation of the principles of natural justice.

This case, therefore, should be of concern to every citizen of Ireland, regardless of their political persusasion. Justice dictates that Seán Garland, in his seventies and in serious ill-health, should not be held in prison but should be granted bail. Not only that, the case against him – rooted as it is in political animus which will ensure he could never have a fair trial – is itself a perversion of the law, and should be dropped. More information can be found here and an online petition against his extradition here. I urge everyone to offer their support.