In an statement today from Belfast, prisoners' rights spokespersons decried yesterday's invasive assault on Irish republican prisoners at Maghaberry Gaol, Co,. Antrim.  (see link)

Prisoners were locked in their cells all morning and denied breakfast and lunch, and when they were finally let out of their cells in the afternoon they were verbally and physically assaulted by the prison guards and called "REPUBLICAN SCUM".  The prison "ninja" screws then invaded the men's cells with dogs and left several filthy and covered with dog hair.

In one very serious incident a male prisoner was so brutally strip-searched and verbally taunted that he will seek assistance at the Belfast rape crisis center.  This is a particularly disgusting incident and shows the level of depravity to which the prison administration and its screw thugs will go to wield their brute force and dehumanize their captives.

This most recent assault,  compounded with many other recent attempts by the administration to agitate the republican prisoners such as the withholding of personal mail, the abuse of family members at visits, and the ongoing daily efforts to dehumanize and abuse the republican prisoners;  can only be seen in light of the recent passing of a bill in Parliament calling for the transfer of "unruly" or "troublesome" prisoners to prisons in England and Wales. 

The Irish Freedom Committee calls on all of our Members and supporters to please send a letter to the Northern Ireland Office and the Prisons Service to protest the deplorable treatment of Irish Republican prisoners at Maghaberry Gaol.  As so succinctly pointed out in the statement referenced above, on a day when Hugh Orde has come out and identified sectarianism as a hate crime,  all right-thinking people should call on his offices to take action against the Prisons Service for the outrageous show of sectarian abuse that the prisoners have had to endure at Maghaberry yesterday.

Sample letter and contact info follows below.