By Gerry Adams

It’s difficult to quote sections of this article, the original article is recommended. https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/01/gerry-adams-starmer-waives-the-rules

Keir Starmer is looking at ‘every conceivable way’ to block compensation for myself and over 300 people wrongly imprisoned in the 1970s — an arrogance in full keeping with the British establishment’s imperial mindset.

According to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his government is looking at ‘every conceivable way’ to prevent me and at least 300 other people from receiving compensation for wrongful arrest and imprisonment in the 1970s.

This issue of compensation arises from the decision by the British Supreme Court in May 2020 that the Interim Custody Order (ICO) or internment order issued against me was unlawful.

Internment was demanded by the Unionist government in 1971 and imposed by the British on 9 August of that year. It had been used in every decade since partition in 1920. Internment saw thousands of armed troops smash their way into nationalist homes to arrest 342 men and boys.

…

The Supreme Court quashed my two convictions. But the Department of Justice in the North decided in 2021 that I was ineligible for compensation. I challenged this decision. In April 2023 Justice Colton concluded that it was ‘beyond reasonable doubt that there has been a miscarriage of justice, that is, the applicant is innocent of the crime for which he was convicted.’ He added: ‘I am satisfied that the applicant meets the test for compensation under the Criminal Justice Act 1988.’

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Mr Starmer’s stated intention to subvert the laws he is supposed to uphold will come as no surprise to those in Ireland and in countless other states around the world who have experienced British colonial law. The self-proclaimed leading British counter-insurgency expert Frank Kitson described it well in his 1971 manual, Low-Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency & Peacekeeping:

‘The law should be used as just another weapon in the Government’s arsenal, and in this case it becomes little more than a propaganda cover for the disposal of unwanted members of the public.’

So I will continue to pursue this case. I have no personal interest in compensation for myself. If any comes to me at the end of this process, I will donate it to good causes.

It’s difficult to quote sections of this article, the original article is recommended. https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/01/gerry-adams-starmer-waives-the-rules