Outrageous Treatment Of Michael Campbell

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Sunday June 23, 2013 12:39 by Turing

Prisoner rights campaigner, Pauline Mellon with a piece on the imprisonment of Michael Campbell in Lithuania. It was written on 21st of June 2013 within hours of the writer attending a meeting meeting concerning Michael Campbell's case. Full text at link.

I would like to draw your attention to the very disturbing case of Irish citizen Michael Campbell. Michael is currently serving a twelve year prison sentence in Lithuania in what has been described as in inhumane and degrading conditions. Michael has been imprisoned since January 2008.

I met briefly today in Derry with a member of Michaels family, a fellow campaigner, a member of the European Parliament and a member of the Stormont Justice committee. The purpose of the meeting was to enlist support to add to the growing call to have Michael repatriated.

Michael is being held in Lukiškės Prison in the Lithuania town of Vilnius. A 2008 judgement of the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) declared conditions at Lukiskes Remand Prison and the Rasu Prison to be violations of the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment as defined by European Convention on Human Rights.

...The Lithuanian authorities tried but failed to extradite two further men in connection with Michael's case, Michaels brother Liam Campbell and Brendan McGuigan. The courts in the North of Ireland ruled that to extradite Liam Campbell would expose him to a real risk of inhuman and degrading treatment by reason of the jail conditions at the Lukiskes Prison.

In case of the second man, Brendan McGuigan the High Court in the South of Ireland ruled that there were concerns about prison conditions in Lithuania and other issues such as whether he would get a fair trial.