Mary Kelly's conviction overturned

Today's good news is that Mary Kelly had her conviction for criminal damage to a US military aircraft (29 January 2003) overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin this morning. This has been revealed by Shannonwatch, the excellent anti-war and human rights group that monitors the foreign military use of Shannon airport.

The original trial was heard in Kilrush and on 4 July 2003 resulted in a hung jury. Subsequently Mary Kelly was tried in Ennis Circuit Court and, on 29 October 2004, she was convicted and sentenced to two years suspended. The appeal against this sentence was heard on 29 July 2008.

It took almost four years for the courts to hear her appeal or facilitate the appeal by producing a full and accurate transcript of her trial.

And it has taken a mere two years and seven months for the three learned judges to deliver their judgement!

What a travesty.

"Justice delayed is justice denied". What excuse is there for this unbelievable delay in giving judgement? For those six and a half years, Mary Kelly has been denied justice .

Yet, having represented herself over all of that time, she sat alone again today to hear the judgement.

That judgement vindicated her. For she has succeeded after a gigantic struggle in forcing the courts to acknowledge that her lone action in Shannon airport on that long night in January 2003 was a good action.

She acted to save lives in Iraq. Our State prosecuted her as a criminal and the State has lost.