By Eamonn McCann for The Derry Journal "... The role of the court had been rendered meaningless by Mr Patterson preparing the way in advance to have the decision set aside if it went against his wishes. This was as blatant an abuse of process as can be imagined. The offence is compounded by the fact that here is real room for doubt whether Mr Patterson had authority to order Ms Price back to jail in the first place. Her lawyers insist she had been freed from the Old Bailey sentence on the basis of a Royal pardon and that the terms of the pardon supersede the powers of the Secretary of State. The lawyers have asked three times for the pardon to be produced. Three times, the State has maintained that no copy can be discovered. At one point, her solicitor was told that the pardon must either have been lost or somehow been shredded. Thus, Ms Price has spent the last seven months in Maghaberry, not on the basis of conviction for a crime but because Owen Patterson believes that the State is better off with her out of the way. She is imprisoned without trial - in everyday language, interned...... ...She should be released because it is an affront to justice and to the rights of citizens that she has been denied her liberty, and even denied sight of the evidence which Owen Patterson says he has seen and which he claims entitles him to deny her her liberty. Rights - or privileges It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the reason there hasn’t been more of a hullaballoo about this matter is that many of those who might have been expected to stand up for civil rights are repelled by Ms Price’s politics. Which means in turn that the extent to which civil rights are defended in the political mainstream is to some extent at least determined by the political beliefs of whomever is being denied their rights. This means that the rights we speak of are not rights at all, but privileges to be granted or withheld according to a politician’s judgment of where the State’s interests lie. The only adequate response is for all who value civil liberties to tell Mr Patterson loudly and with one voice – Free Marian Price now." - Eamonn McCann By Brian Feeney for Irish News) ......It turned out the previous night our proconsul for the time being, the man with the easiest job in the British cabinet, had signed an order revoking what he believed was the licence granted to Marion Price in 1980 to be free.........What the proconsul’s advisers had apparently not been aware of was that weeks after being released on licence, Price had subsequently been granted a royal pardon and was actually not on licence at all so the proconsul had no power to revoke a licence that had been rendered redundant by the pardon. Needless to say, Price’s solicitor has taken this point to court -- three times. But guess what, the British government can’t find the pardon, a pardon that no-one disputes was granted.They say it has been lost or maybe shredded. If you believe that you believe anything. Sounds like a lame attempt to limp around the embarrassment. What has the proconsul to say on all this? As you would expect, nothing. Remember, this is perhaps the most insignificant politician inflicted on this place since Paul Murphy. He has no votes here and couldn’t get ejected here but has ridden roughshod over the legal system here. Remember, he signed the order the night before the bail hearing in case Marion Price got bail.In other words our proconsul treated the bail hearing with complete contempt.He had already arranged for police to set its decision aside if the magistrate released Price........ ..The real issue is abuse of power and contempt for the rights of all citizens by a politician and an English politician to boot, devoid of any mandate here. In effect he has interned her in what looks like an act of political vindictiveness.........The alleged inability to find her pardon is as preposterous as that other example of bad faith from the same source - the shameful failure to fulfil the commitment to hold an inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane....... ..She should not be there. She was granted a pardon under the royal prerogative 30 years ago and should not be in jail at the whim of an insignificant proconsul. Sandy Boyer for The Pensive Quill The United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, called for the abolition of solitary confinement in an October 18 report to the UN's Third Committee. "Considering the severe mental pain or suffering solitary confinement may cause, it can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." He called for a total prohibition on solitary confinement for more than 15 days. As this is being written, Marian Price has been in solitary confinement for more than 7 months. She has been charged twice under Northern Ireland's special security laws.Each time she was released on bail... .. Everyone who believes in human rights and civil liberties needs to do whatever they can to help free Marian Price. From STOP THE RAPE OF MARIAN PRICE When Marian Price was a young girl of 19, she was ordered by Gerry Adams OC of the Belfast Brigade of the IRA to bomb Britain and taken by the Provisional IRA and other members like Gerry Kelly to London. Her senior leadership informed the British on her and she was arrested, the British then force fed her for 200 days of her hunger strike, 400 times. Now Gerry Adams, Gery Kelly along with other senior Provos who command huge salaries of British taxpayers monies, on the gravy train known as Stormont, collaborate with the British interning former comrades like Marian and other political prisoners, who refuse to betray their comrades or collaborate with British occupation. These prisoners of political conscience suffer today, the same brutality and torture at the hands of British sectarian thug operatives daily, that the 10 hunger strikers suffered, prior to their murders by Thatcher and the British. Marian Price an icon of Irish women's resistance to British colonialism and occupation in Ireland, recently admitted her days as a militant activist are long past but she said, "I cannot condemn another young person for following the same path I did." Because as a former member of the IRA who along with other members will not accept, collaborate or inform on traditional Irish republicans who will not surrender to the British, she has been politically interned without trial, because of her political conscience Yes, at a traditional annual Easter Rising ceremony she attended on April 25, 2011 which are not only legal but are simply memorials, she held up a piece of paper, which contained a prepared statement from The 32 County Sovereignty Movement, while another, unidentified person read it aloud at the City Cemetery, in Derry. The statement was not written, prepared, consented, refuted or pre-acknowledged by Marian. She simply held the paper, which contained the statement, so it could be read aloud, as it was terribly windy. Less, than a month later, Marian was arrested, detained and charged with Promoting Terrorism for her action, on April 25, at the 2011 Easter Rising commemoration.Her actions, for which the new charge stems. amounted to nothing more than attending the rally and holding a piece of paper. The British Government devised the action to justify the charge, which cannot be substantiated. The court’s decided to grant her bail on the grounds that she was not a danger to the public. The British Secretary of State to the Queen of England, Owen Patterson overruled the court and ordered her political internment without trial, as the spokesperson for the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, and usurped the court’s decision to grant her bail. The British Government will stop at nothing from blaming, to charging, and using Marion as a scapegoat, to justify their inappropriate use of force and violence in various events, involving many ordinary Irish people in the the colonized 6 Counties over the past 2 years. Marian as an activist for prisoners rights and in her capacity as spokesperson for 32CSM highlighted the almost daily torture and brutality of her now fellow Irish political prisoners in her all male Maghaberry prison. Marian has been a staunch advocate and supporter of Irish Republicans and helped in the aid and welfare of past Irish Republican Prisoners but has not committed or even been charged with any crime for 30 years. Her efforts have all been made in a peaceful and silent manner, since being released from prison in 1980 after being forced fed 400 times while on hunger strike for 200 days with her sister.Now as a long time vilified figure by the British Government, they want their remaining pound of flesh, despite the Belfast Agreement, they’ve created a ruse of charges, and political internment to detain her, and in a MEN’S PRISON. This is illegal under European and international law and inappropriate but these current actions of the British Government are meant to send a couple of clear messages to anyone: 1.) In the eyes of the British Government, you too, can be detained for whatever reason. 2.) If you hold certain beliefs, ideas or philosophies, which go against or conflict with those of the British Government/Crown, which are expressed directly or implicitly in public, or anywhere on record, and refuse to relinquish such beliefs, ideas or philosophies, you too, maybe subjected to the British Government’s actions of internment without trial or other actions which may or may not be legal, or even remotely humane. BRITISH SINN FEIN MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ADMINISTERING THIS AND PUT A STOP TO IT IMMEDIATELY ! THIS IS AN UTTER DISGRACE ! BRITISH SINN FEIN CAME TO POWER ON THE BACKS OF PRISONERS LIKE BOBBY SANDS AND THE 10 DEAD HUNGER STRIKERS WHO GOT THE SAME TREATMENT. BRITISH SINN FEIN DO HAVE THE POWER TO PUT A STOP TO IT IMMEDIATELY ! ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY IS NONSENSE ! NO ONE CAN CALL THEMSELVES A REPUBLICAN WHO ADMINISTERS MEDIEVAL PRISON CONDITIONS SUCH AS MAGHABERRY TODAY ! THIS IS DISGUSTING AND SO IS POLITICAL INTERNMENT WITHOUT TRIAL ! HOW DARE THEY COMMEMORATE BOBBY SANDS AND INSULT HIS MEMORY WITH THIS ! YOU WOULDN'T TREAT ANIMALS LIKE THIS ! GERRY ADAM'S PARTY WAS FOUNDED ON THE INTRODUCTION OF INTERNMENT 40 YEARS AGO IN IRELAND NOW THEY ARE ADMINISTERING IT. STOP THE RAPE OF MARIAN PRICE Sign Petition; FREE PRICE