Press statement from Mary Kelly Support Group

national | anti-war / imperialism | press release

Sunday June 13, 2004 15:20

by Anti-War Ireland

info at antiwarireland dot org

PRESS STATEMENT FROM MARY KELLY SUPPORT GROUP

Shannon re-trial starts Tuesday in Ennis:
Kelly case aims to put Bush, Govt on trial

AN ex-US attorney-general and a former assistant general secretary of the UN will be among the witnesses in Ennis Circuit Court, as Shannon peace-campaigner Mary Kelly faces a new trial starting Tuesday. [June 15th]

Ramsey Clark and Denis Halliday will testify in Ms Kelly’s defence. Her lawyers will argue that her efforts to ‘disarm’ a US Navy plane at Shannon Airport in January 2003 were justified in Irish and international law because she intended to prevent a crime.

A similar trial for Ms Kelly in Kilrush last year ended in a hung jury on the charge of criminal damage without due cause.

Mr Clark and Mr Halliday will support Ms Kelly’s claim that the US/British invasion of Iraq, which eventually took place several weeks after her action, was both immoral and illegal.

The Nuremberg war-crimes tribunal of 1945-46 declared: “Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore [individuals] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.”

Ms Kelly, who is a nurse, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. She says she acted to save innocent lives.

Her action was also in defence of Ireland’s traditional policy of military neutrality, which has been abandoned by the present Government, she adds. More than 120,000 US soldiers passed through Shannon Airport last year, and their transit continues at a rate of more than 10,000 every month.

Katharine Gun, the British civil servant who blew the whistle on spying at the UN, calls Mary Kelly “a very brave woman”. Charges against Gun were dropped in February when it was clear her case would embarrass the British government.

Gun admires Mary Kelly, saying: “Not only is she a mother, but also a nurse, two of the most caring professions in the world. It is a mother’s job and a nurse’s job to save others from pain and death. I cannot imagine any jury wanting to convict a woman for doing simply that.”

Ms Kelly has also had a message of support from another famous whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg. Mr Ellsberg was a high-ranking US government official and consultant who leak the ‘Pentagon Papers’ to Congress and then to the media in 1969 and 1971, helping to expose America’s criminal conduct in Vietnam.

Mr Ellsberg supports the legitimacy of non-violent direct action, and wished Ms Kelly “congratulations on your first hung jury; may you do even better this time!”

Ramsey Clark, who was attorney-general of the United States in the 1960s, is also involved in a campaign to impeach George W Bush. He will give a public talk in Ennis on Thursday, June 17th.

Ends

For further information, contact
Maggie Roynane, 087 783 8688, or Paul O’Toole, 086 351 2469

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Press statement from Mary Kelly Support Group