Show Israel the Red Card!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from the London Irish Brigade protested outside the Irish embassy in London's Belgravia against planned football matches between Ireland last week. But Ireland’s home game against Israel in the Nations League will now be behind closed doors in Serbia in October. The UEFA Nations League games are scheduled for October this year with the Irish Football Association's consent, and are planned to take place in Hungary and Serbia. There have already been many protests by Irish football fans in Ireland itself. Days after the London protest, teenage Palestinian footballer Fadi al-Nassan died a week after being shot in his West Bank village in an Israeli settler attack. A spokesperson for the London Irish Brigade declared at the protest "Israel should be as isolated, in sport and in every other way, as apartheid South Africa ever was. Shame on the cowardly officials and bodies who are refusing to do it"! 

Defending Liam Campbell

By New Worker correspondent

Supporters of the Irish Republican Prisoners Support Group - Greater London picketed the Irish embassy in London on Saturday in support of the campaign to stop the extradition of Liam Campbell to Lithuania. 

Liam Campbell, a dissident Irish republican, was arrested in Dundalk on 2^nd December 2016 on a warrant issued by Lithuania and endorsed by the High Court in Dublin. He is facing extradition to Lithuania pending an appeal against the 13^th July order in January 2021. If extradited and found guilty, he faces a sentence of 20 years. This latest attempt to extradite Liam comes after a legal battle lasting nearly 12 years in the High Court in Dublin. 

In October 2013 his brother Michael Campbell was acquitted of all charges in Lithuania because the court believed he was framed by MI5. His lawyer, Ingrida Botyriene, said: “A person cannot be sentenced for a crime committed by state officials. He was acquitted because the court found that what he was accused of was a provocation. It was just an activity of the state security services. Michael Campbell was set up in a ‘sting’ operation by MI5, the Irish and Lithuanian intelligence agencies and jailed in Lithuania on 21 October 2011 for 12 years. The spooks had in fact initiated the arms deal on which he was convicted. He would never be involved in arms deals and would never go to Lithuania for such an affair if he had not been provoked by secret agents”.

The same judgement should apply to Liam now as the circumstances are exactly the same.