Sinn Féin MP Elisha McCallion has urged Karen Bradley, to facilitate the immediate release of Derry republican Tony Taylor amid claims the Secretary of State was responsible for a parole hearing being put back until the autumn. She said Mr. Taylor, who has been imprisoned since March 10, 2016, when Mrs. Bradley’s predecessor, Theresa Villiers, revoked his release licence, has been denied his day in court in what she characterised as an abuse of due process. “It is now over two years from Tony Taylor’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment. I made it clear, once again to the British Secretary of State that Tony’s continued detention is wrong and is a violation of his human rights. “Sinn Féin has consistently stated that if evidence exists to show that Tony Taylor is a risk to the public, it should be put before him and his legal team in an open court so that this can be challenged. Over the course of the past two years, the British government has failed to produce any evidence which could in any way justify his continued detention,” she said. Mr. Taylor’s solicitor Aiden Carlin, meanwhile, has indicated that his client believes the Northern Ireland Office was behind a parole hearing being delayed until after the summer. Mr. Carlin stated: “Our instructions are that the Secretary of State appears to be delaying the proceedings. “Almost a year has passed since the last Parole Commissioners Northern Ireland (PCNI) hearing. Tony Taylor has already spent over two years in… [Read full story]
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