On 18 August 2020 nine activists from Irish republican organisation Saoradh were arrested in the occupied north of Ireland. With their houses raided and personal and family items confiscated, they were dragged off to Musgrave Interrogation Unit in Belfast. Days later, Saoradh offices and homes across Ireland were raided in a co-ordinated attack. The next morning, after a solidarity demonstration in Glasgow, which the RCG supported, a Saoradh Scotland activist was also arrested and questioned by Police Scotland. On 22 August Dr Issam Hijjawi, a Palestinian activist based in Scotland, was arrested at Heathrow airport and taken to Musgrave. All ten are now being held in prison. RUBY MORRIS reports.
The arrests came after British MI5 infiltration of Saoradh by Glaswegian agent Dennis McFadden. McFadden, previously a police constable in Glasgow, has been active in republican circles for over 20 years and became Saoradh’s joint resource officer in 2019, alongside Sharon Jordan, one of the ten arrested. McFadden entrapped activists by inviting them to meetings at houses he had bugged with high tech video and audio recording devices.
Known as Operation Arbacia and described by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Crime Operations Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray as a ‘community safety operation’, this large scale attack involved British MI5 agents, Police Scotland, an Garda Siochana, the Metropolitan Police Service and over 500 PSNI officers. Addressing the House of Commons on 2 September, Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis claimed the arrests to be the ‘biggest step in tackling violent dissident republicans in Northern Ireland in a generation’ and thanked the PSNI and its partners for their ‘hard work’ and ‘professionalism’. The ten people arrested have been charged under the Terrorism Act 2006 with offences including directing terrorism, preparatory acts of terrorism, membership of a proscribed organisation, conspiracy to possess explosives with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to possess ammunition with intent to endanger life. Saoradh is regularly described in the media as having links to the ‘New IRA’, but has repeatedly stressed that it is a standalone organisation.
Dr Issam Hijjawi, originally from the West Bank in Palestine, is a respected Palestine solidarity activist in Scotland. He served as chair of the Association of Palestinian Communities in Scotland, represented the Palestinian Democratic Forum in Europe and supported Glasgow RCG and the Zionism is Racism Coalition in opposing Zionists marching on so-called anti-racist marches organised by Stand Up to Racism. He is accused of preparatory acts of terrorism under Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006. As Scotland Against Criminalising Communities has pointed out, ‘Section 5 does not necessarily involve, as some people might suppose, preparation of a terrorist attack. Instead, it greatly expands the range of conduct that can be prosecuted under the already over-broad definition of terrorism given in the Terrorism Act 2000. People planning, or considering, travel to Syria have been convicted under Section 5. Actions carried out for the benefit of a proscribed organisation can also be prosecuted under Section 5.’
Since their arrests, Saoradh activists Sharon Jordan and Mandy Duffy have been resisting attempts at criminalisation. Instead of giving them the clothes which family members had brought to Hydebank prison, staff attempted to give them ‘jail issue’ clothing, which they refused to wear. The principle of rejecting the ‘convict’s uniform’ has a long history in Irish republican prisoner resistance; 44 years ago, on 14 September 1976, Kieran Nugent began the Blanket Protest, telling screws that if they wanted him to wear a uniform, they would have to ‘nail it to my back’.
Issam Hijjawi has a series of underlying medical problems for which he is struggling to get proper health care in Maghaberry prison. He has also been refused family visits via Zoom. Having been refused bail and then had to fight to be taken to hospital for an MRI scan, after the appointment he was not returned to Roe House, the republican wing, despite there being empty cells there which can be used for self-isolating. Instead he was moved to another part of the prison, known for its uninhabitable conditions and where a prisoner has already died of Covid. Issam began a protest hunger strike on 16 September; as we go to press it has been joined by more than 50 republican prisoners in Maghaberry, Portlaoise and Hydebank.
On 19 September, dozens of demonstrations took place across Ireland and internationally. RCG supporters in Glasgow joined the protest in Barrowland Park, where our speaker told the protest: ‘It is not a crime to be a revolutionary Irish republican. It is not a crime to be a revolutionary Palestinian. Let’s be clear, it is British imperialism and its allies who are the guilty ones; they are the criminals, not Issam and his Irish republican comrades.’
The RCG condemns the arrests, harassment and political policing used against Irish republicans and anti-imperialists. This is a clear attack on the democratic right to organise. All those who oppose the racism and imperialism of the British state must unite to demand the immediate release of the Saoradh 9 and Dr Issam Hijjawi.
