Three people died in disputed circumstances while in police custody, and restraining practices by police and prison officers reportedly contributed to other deaths in custody. Measures against officials responsible for human rights violations appeared inadequate. Inquests in Northern Ireland did not ensure proper investigations into disputed killings. Detainees faced deportation to a country where they would risk human rights violations. Armed political groups carried out human rights abuses in Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland, the cessation of military activities declared by armed political groups in 1994 was maintained and talks continued between the government and individual political parties. Loyalist armed groups, including the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force, seek to maintain Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom (UK). Republican armed groups, including the Irish Republican Army (IRA), seek unification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland. In June the government stated that it would review all emergency legislation, but this review had not been initiated by December and all emergency legislation remained in force. It included powers to hold detainees for seven days before bringing them before a judge; to prevent access to lawyers for up to 48 hours; to deny lawyers access to their clients' interrogation; and the use of special interrogation centres where detainees can be held virtually incommunicado. In April measures in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act came into force in England and Wales which curtailed the right to silence of a suspect during interrogation and trial (see Amnesty International Report 1995). The UN Human Rights Committee examined the UK's fourth periodic report in July and concluded that "the legal system of the United Kingdom does not ensure fully that an effective remedy is provided for all violations of the rights contained in the [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]". The Committee also expressed concern about several specific issues, including police investigations into incidents involving the police or army, which it said "lack sufficient credibility". The UN Committee against Torture, after its examination of the UK's second periodic report in November, expressed concern about emergency provisions in Northern Ireland, methods adopted in forcible deportations, the refoulement of asylum-seekers and discriminatory practices against black citizens by police and immigration authorities. Three people died in police custody after reportedly being hit by police officers using newly issued batons. Brian Douglas, a well-known black community member, died in police custody in May from haemorrhages and a fractured skull. He had been detained five days earlier with Stafford Soloman for allegedly possessing a knife, cs gas and cannabis. Stafford Soloman sustained a broken wrist. Both Gary Allsopp and Wayne Douglas collapsed and died about an hour after their arrests, in July and December respectively. Police post-mortems gave heart failure as the cause of death. Two black people died after being restrained by prison officers; in both cases the cause of death remained unknown. Dennis Stevens was found dead in October in a cell in Dartmoor prison after being kept in a restraining body-belt for many hours. In December Alton Manning, a remand prisoner, died in Blakenhurst prison after a struggle with prison officers. Three police officers charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of Joy Gardner were acquitted in June. Three police officers from a special deportation squad, two local police officers and an immigration officer raided the home of Joy Gardner, who faced deportation to Jamaica, in July 1993. When she was prevented from telephoning her lawyer, a struggle ensued. She was placed in a body-belt with her hands cuffed, her thighs and ankles bound in leather straps, and adhesive tape was wrapped around her mouth and chin seven times. She died four days later (see Amnesty International Report 1995). Disciplinary charges were brought against a senior supervisory officer of the deportation squad for neglect of duty; proceedings were pending at the end of the year. In November an inquest found that Richard O'Brien, an Irish man, had been unlawfully killed in 1994. He died after London police officers handcuffed him, knelt on his back and dragged him into a van, where he was left lying face down. The coroner was critical of police training on methods of restraint. No officers were prosecuted in connection with the death of Shiji Lapite, of Nigerian origin, in December 1994. He collapsed and died shortly after his arrest for "acting suspiciously", allegedly from asphyxia because of the "chokehold" method of restraint used by police officers. Four people of Palestinian origin were held in connection with the bombing of the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish community centre in London in July 1994. The conditions of their detention, in particular those of the female prisoners in Holloway Prison, led to psychological ill-treatment and a marked deterioration of physical and mental health. The women were kept in virtual isolation, and denied regular access to exercise facilities and adequate medical attention. Moreover, they were subjected to routine strip-searching before and after every visit. The remaining three defendants of the "Ballymurphy Seven" were acquitted in March after a judge ruled that material which had not been disclosed by the prosecution to defence lawyers might have affected the reliability of their confessions (see Amnesty International Reports 1994 and 1995). The seven had been charged with a bomb attack in Northern Ireland on the basis of confessions which they claimed had been obtained under duress in Castlereagh interrogation centre. During 1995 complaints were made of police misconduct by detainees held in special interrogation centres. A review of the complaints procedure in Northern Ireland was announced in October. The government continued to prevent inquests held in Northern Ireland from examining the full circumstances of a number of disputed killings which had taken place in previous years. The government issued Public Interest Immunity certificates to prevent the disclosure of evidence. None of the security force members involved in the killings gave oral evidence. The inquest held in 1994 into the killings in 1990 of John McNeill, Edward Hale and Peter Thompson (see Amnesty International Report 1995) was legally challenged in April. A High Court judge quashed its findings and ordered another inquest. The second inquest, begun in September, was postponed after the families' lawyer challenged the coroner's decision not to recall security force witnesses who gave evidence at the first inquest. The inquest into the killing of Pearse Jordan in 1992 began in January but was postponed twice because new evidence was brought to light and because of legal challenges. Pearse Jordan, an unarmed IRA member, was shot in the back by police officers as he ran away after the stolen car he was driving was rammed by two unmarked police cars (see Amnesty International Report 1993). Eye-witnesses claimed that no warning was given before shots were fired. An inquest into the killing of eight IRA members and one civilian in 1987 by members of the Special Air Service (SAS) regiment of the British army ended in June. The jury found that the men had died from multiple gunshot wounds. They were ambushed during an attack on a police station in Loughgall. The families of the IRA members instructed their lawyer to withdraw from the hearing because the lawyer did not have the same access to evidence as lawyers acting for the police and the soldiers. At a judicial review hearing in September, lawyers for the families argued that the lack of advance copies of witness statements meant the families' lawyers could not effectively pursue the question of why the men were shot dead instead of being arrested. No judgment had been issued by the end of the year. In January the House of Lords dismissed the appeal of British soldier Lee Clegg against his murder conviction for the killing of Karen Reilly (see Amnesty International Reports 1992 and 1993). However, in July Lee Clegg was released after having served four years of his life sentence and was reinstated into the army. In February, two soldiers were sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of murdering Peter McBride in September 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993). In March the Director of Public Prosecutions announced that there would be no prosecutions as a result of the second "Stevens inquiry". Chief Constable John Stevens had been asked to carry out a further inquiry into alleged collusion between the security forces and Loyalist armed groups in Northern Ireland (see previous Amnesty International Reports). He submitted three reports, in February and October 1994 and January 1995, but the findings remained secret. A newspaper reported that the Stevens inquiry had presented detailed evidence of the involvement of four members of the security forces in killings. In September the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that the government had violated the right to life of three unarmed IRA members shot dead by undercover SAS soldiers in Gibraltar in 1988 (see Amnesty International Reports 1989 and 1995). The ECHR stated that it was "not persuaded" that the killings "constituted the use of force which was no more than absolutely necessary" and that there was a "lack of appropriate care in the control and organization of the arrest operation". Two men were still held without charge at the end of the year, pending deportation for "national security" reasons to India, where they would face possible torture or extrajudicial execution for campaigning for a separate Sikh state in Punjab. Raghbir Singh was arrested in March and applied for political asylum in April. He had lived in the UK since 1980. The ECHR ruled in June that the UK had violated the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by attempting to deport Karamjit Singh Chahal to India (see Amnesty International Reports 1992 and 1995). Seven men were killed in Northern Ireland as "punishment"; six by Republican armed groups and one by Loyalists. Four others were wounded after shootings. Reports of "punishment" beatings, in which large groups of masked men used baseball bats, hammers and sticks with protruding nails to beat defenceless victims, increased. During 1995, according to police figures, there were 217 such beatings: 141 carried out by Republicans and 76 by Loyalists. However, in the majority of cases responsibility was not claimed by any organization. In other instances, people were forced to leave Northern Ireland under threat of violence. During the year a group of families campaigned for the IRA to reveal the location of about 10 bodies of people allegedly killed by the IRA in the 1970s. In August Amnesty International issued a report, United Kingdom: Summary of human rights concerns, which identified laws, procedures and practices of law enforcement which the organization believes do not conform to international standards and have led to human rights violations. The organization expressed concern about the government's failure to investigate independently and fully serious allegations of human rights violations; to make public the results of internal investigations; and to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice. Amnesty International urged the authorities to carry out independent investigations into the full circumstances of deaths in custody and to review the methods of restraint being used. Amnesty International observed part of the proceedings of the trial related to the death of Joy Gardner. After the trial, the organization called for an independent inquiry into the role and accountability of all agencies, both public and private, involved in the deportation process. In August the organization published United Kingdom: Death in police custody of Joy Gardner. Amnesty International welcomed the ruling by the ECHR that the government had violated the right to life when its agents killed three IRA members in Gibraltar. The organization urged the government to institute an independent review of legislation and procedures on the use of lethal force. The organization also highlighted the inadequacy of the inquest procedure to fully investigate killings by the security forces. Amnesty International urged the government not to deport Karamjit Singh Chahal and Raghbir Singh to India, where the organization believed they would be at serious risk of torture or extrajudicial execution. In April Amnesty International submitted written comments to the ECHR on the case of Murray v. UK (see Amnesty International Report 1995). Amnesty International stressed that the right to silence is an essential safeguard of the internationally recognized presumption of innocence and the right not to testify against oneself. Amnesty International also expressed concern about the denial of the rights of suspects arrested under emergency legislation in Northern Ireland. Amnesty International continued to urge the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to review the life sentences of Patrick Kane, Sean Kelly and Michael Timmons who were convicted of the murder of two army corporals (see Amnesty International Reports 1994 and 1995). Amnesty International expressed concern that routine strip-searching of female prisoners at Holloway prison was being carried out not for the purposes of security but in order to humiliate and degrade prisoners. The organization urged the prison authorities to ensure that the prisoners were not ill-treated. In July and November Amnesty International submitted information about its concerns to the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Committee against Torture. Amnesty International continued to express concern about reports of human rights abuses carried out by armed political groups in Northern Ireland.

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