A 61-year-old man appeared in a Dublin courtroom Thursday after being arrested in reference to an Irish Republican Army car bombing that killed three Northern Ireland policemen in 1982.
Martin John McCauley was arrested Wednesday on an extradition warrant and can be prosecuted on homicide expenses in the deaths of Royal Ulster Constabulary Sgt. Sean Quinn and constables Allan McCloy and Paul Hamilton, mentioned Iain Livingstone, head of Operation Kenova that investigated scores of murders, together with dozens allegedly carried out by the IRA in opposition to informants.
“The decision to prosecute more than 40 years after the incident shows the rigor and application Kenova has applied to this investigation and that evidence will now be tested by a court,” Livingstone mentioned. “Our thoughts remain with the three officers’ families who have continued to act with courage and great dignity over the past four decades.”
Charging McCauley with homicide would mark a uncommon prosecution at the moment over the violence often called “the Troubles” that reigned for 3 a long time in a battle involving Irish republican and British loyalist militants and U.Ok. safety forces that left 3,600 folks useless, some 50,000 wounded and 1000’s bereaved. The 1998 Good Friday peace accord largely ended the violence, although wounds are nonetheless uncooked for the victims.
Operation Kenova
A controversial legislation handed by the British authorities final yr, the Legacy and Reconciliation Bill, would have given immunity from prosecution for many offenses by militant teams and British troopers after May 1. But a Belfast decide dominated in February that the invoice doesn’t adjust to human rights legislation. The authorities is interesting the ruling.
The Public Prosecution Service mentioned the choice to press expenses in the three murders was made in April earlier than the legislation went into impact.
(*3*) a spokesperson mentioned in a statement.
The three officers have been killed Oct. 27, 1982, when a bomb was remotely detonated alongside a street in Kinnego Embankment in County Armagh, Det. Sgt. Adrian Murray mentioned in Dublin’s High Court.
According to the BBC, two folks suspected of involvement on the time have been shot useless two weeks later by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers.
Decades later, new scientific exams have been accomplished on materials recovered from the time “which has given a much better understanding of the people responsible,” lead investigator John Boutcher said in 2020.
McCauley’s function in the bombing hasn’t been decided however there’s forensic proof tying him to the fastidiously deliberate assault, carried out by two members of the IRA, Murray mentioned.
McCauley denies the accusations and can contest his extradition, a legislation agency representing him mentioned in a press release.
A decide ordered McCauley held till a listening to in the Criminal Courts of Justice.
