The Irish government has decided to ask the European Court of Human Rights to revise its judgment over one of the most harrowing torture cases during the Troubles.
Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan, will make the request in light of a recent RTÉ documentary which unearthed military documents that appear to show Britain accepted that interrogation techniques used on the men amounted to torture.
Fourteen Irish men were detained in 1971 after the introduction of internment without trial, and were subjected to torture at the Ballykelly army base. Many of the men were hooded and flown to the location, before being thrown from hovering helicopters. Testimonials suggest the men were told they were hundreds of feet in the air, despite being only a few feet from the ground
The ECHR admonished the UK in 1978 for its inhuman and degrading treatment of the detainees, but fell short of finding Britain guilty of torture.
Flanagan said: “The government is aware of the suffering of the individual men and of their families. The archival material which underlay the RTE documentary was therefore taken very seriously by the government and was subject to thorough legal analysis and advice. On the basis of the new material uncovered, it will be contended that the ill-treatment suffered by the hooded men should be recognised as torture.”
The decision was welcomed by rights groups, including Amnesty International, who supported the men's demand for a reopening of the case.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty’s Northern Ireland programme director, said: “The then Irish government took a brave and unprecedented step when bringing the case against the UK back in 1971. Today’s Irish government has remained true to that pursuit of justice.
“Ireland is to be commended for playing its role in ensuring the UK is finally held responsible for what it did to these men in those interrogation rooms 43 years ago. We hope the UK government now announces without further delay the establishment of an independent investigation into what was revealed in the RTE programme.”