Internment Of Tony Taylor

national | crime and justice | press release Saturday March 19, 2016 16:39 by Ruared - Release Tony Taylor

Background to the internment of Tony Taylor

On 6th March 2014, after almost three years on remand in Maghaberry prison, Tony Taylor was convicted and sentenced to seven years - three in custody and four on license - for Republican activity. Tony was also given a lengthy sentence in the early nineties after being injured in an explosion in his native Derry.

When Tony emerged from Maghaberry in August 2014, he began rebuilding his life, while focusing his Republican activism on community empowerment and prisoner welfare issues, along with this, he was instrumental in rebuilding the political party - Republican Network for Unity - in the North-West area.

On 10 March 2016, while out on a shopping trip with his family, Tony was arrested by the PSNI who informed him that the British Secretary of State Theresa Villiers had revoked his license. Tony was brought straight to Maghaberry prison, without questioning, charge or trial and he was denied legal representation. Throughout this process he wasn't informed of the reasons why Theresa Villiers, who hasn’t received a single vote in Ireland, revoked his license and sent him to prison. She later let slip an admission that it was recommended to her by the Parole Commissioners that Tony be sent back to prison, smothered under the blanket of ‘public risk’.

Immediately after his arrest, Tony’s party colleagues set up the Release Tony Taylor campaign committee to organise and coordinate a campaign to expose this blatant case of internment and secure his release.

The fact that Tony Taylor has been imprisoned without questioning, charge or trial in 2016 is an affront to human rights and natural justice. We call on all those who proclaim to uphold human rights and justice to support the campaign for Tony’s release.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” - Martin Luther King.