Police union officials challenged Ireland's justice minister Wednesday over the government's stated willingness to parole four Irish Republican Army prisoners convicted of killing a police officer. Members of the Garda Siochana, Ireland's largely unarmed police force, have been outraged by the government's acknowledgment that it offered early paroles of the four men during unsuccessful peacemaking negotiations with Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party, last year.
The government of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern previously insisted that the IRA men convicted of killing officer Jerry McCabe in 1996 could not have their sentences reduced under terms of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord. That historic agreement delivered freedom to hundreds of other paramilitary convicts in both the British territory and in the Irish Republic, but the government insisted the McCabe killing was a special case. In a 1999 letter to McCabe's wife, Anne, the government promised that the men convicted of killing her husband would serve their full sentences. But Ahern told lawmakers Wednesday that the four could be freed if the IRA fully renounced violence, the goal of last year's failed negotiations in Belfast. He noted that the IRA would need to cease all activities, including robberies, and fully disarm. "If all of those points were agreed, we would have honored our commitments," he said, referring to the early parole for the four IRA men. "But those points were not agreed."
After a two-hour meeting with Justice Minister Michael McDowell, leaders of the Garda Representative Association said they were satisfied that the government did not intend to release any of the IRA men anytime soon. But the police union said it also was consulting lawyers about a possible lawsuit against the government if it tried to free any of the four men early. The four were convicted in 1999 of manslaughter in the death of McCabe, who was shot three times point-blank during a botched IRA raid on a cash-filled van that police were guarding in the County Limerick village of Adare. McCabe's police partner was seriously wounded. The IRA initially denied involvement in the 1996 attack, then said its Limerick members carried out the attack as an unauthorized operation. During the IRA men's trial, prosecutors reluctantly dropped murder charges after two key witnesses declined to testify because of IRA threats. So, instead of facing a potential minimum 40-year sentence for murdering a police officer, the four received sentences for manslaughter ranging from 11 to 14 years. The IRA traditionally avoids attacks on members of the Irish army and Garda Siochana in order to minimize public opposition to IRA activities in neighboring Northern Ireland. |