Diplock courts
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The Diplock courts were a type of court established by the British Government in Northern Ireland in 1972, in an attempt to overcome widespread jury intimidation associated with the Troubles. The right to trial by jury was suspended and the court consisted of a single judge. The courts were controversial.
The courts were established in response to a report by Lord Diplock<ref name=diplock>Report of the Commission to Consider Legal Procedures to deal with Terrorist Activities in Northern Ireland — full text of the Diplock Report</ref>, which addressed the problem of dealing with paramilitary violence through means other than internment. The report marked the beginnings of a policy known as criminalisation, in which the state removed any legal distinction between political violence and normal crime, with paramilitary prisoners treated as common criminals. This led to the hunger strikes of 1981.
The report provided the basis for the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions), Act 1973, which, although later amended, continued as the basis for "anti-terrorist" legislation.
Until recently the Diplock courts only tried republican or loyalist paramilitaries. In the first case in which a person not associated with the Troubles was tried and convicted, Abbas Boutrab, a suspected al-Qaeda sympathizer, was found guilty of having information that could assist bombing an airliner.<ref>Al-Qaeda terror suspect convicted — BBC News article, 24 November 2005</ref> A sentence of six years was handed down on December 20, 2005.<ref>Al-Qaeda terror suspect is jailed — BBC News article, 20 December 2005</ref>
The number of cases heard in Diplock courts reached a peak of 329 a year in the mid 1980s. With the Northern Ireland peace process that figure fell to 60 a year in the mid 2000s.<ref name=nio>Replacement Arrangements for the Diplock Court SystemPDF — Northern Ireland Office consultation paper, August 2006</ref> On 1 August 2005, the Northern Ireland Office announced that the Diplock courts were to be phased out, and in August 2006 they announced that the courts were to be abolished from July 2007. Non-jury trials would still be used in Northern Ireland, but only in exceptional cases.<ref name=bbc>Jury trials 'to become the norm' — BBC News article, 11 August 2006</ref>
[edit] List of famous cases tried in Diplock courts
- Shankill Butchers<ref name=it>British plan to abolish Diplock courts next year — The Irish Times article, 11 August 2006</ref>
- Shankill Road bomber Sean Kelly<ref name=it />
- Christy Walsh<ref name=birw>Christy Walsh: a miscarriage of justice — from the British Irish Rights Watch group</ref><ref>The Fundamental Flaws in the Arrest, Trial and Appeals of Christy Walsh — website campaigning for Walsh's release</ref>
[edit] See also
- Special Criminal Court: Republic of Ireland's equivalent of the Diplock courts
