Ireland On-Line: Labour calls on Shell to free Rossport Five: “So the men are now in prison arising from a court injunction to stop them obstructing or interfering with the construction of a pipeline which was not itself legitimate from the very beginning,”…: Thursday 25 August 2005

Shell must free the Rossport Five by immediately lifting its court injunction against them, it was claimed today.

Labour Party environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore said the Co Mayo men were today spending their 58th day in Dublin’s Cloverhill Prison for simply defending the health and safety of their families and communities.

The Dun Laoghaire TD told the Humbert Summer School in Ballina that these normally law-abiding citizens should not have to sit in jail while real criminals get released early or go free because of lack of evidence.

“Shell should immediately take the initiative and go back to the High Court and waive their injunction and clear the way for the men’s release,” he said.

Mr Gilmore said circumstances in the issue had now changed as work on the construction of the controversial pipeline had stopped.

Natural Resources Minister Noel Dempsey ordered Shell to cease construction because it had not received the necessary permission to weld sections of the inshore pipeline.

“So the men are now in prison arising from a court injunction to stop them obstructing or interfering with the construction of a pipeline which was not itself legitimate from the very beginning,” Mr Gilmore added.

“Shell’s apparent concern that, if released, the men would return and resume their protest is therefore groundless because the very work against which they were protesting has now been stopped.”

Mr Gilmore is one of over 60 speakers at the 19th annual summer school, which commemorates French republican General Jean Joseph Humbert.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=153823280&p=y538z3986

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