Fundraiser for activist fighting US extradition

Kentstown resident Sean Garland plans to go to the Supreme Court after the High Court rejected an application by his legal team seeking discovery of documents from the United States authorities, relating to his attempted extradition there. Mr Garland, a former president of the Workers' Party, is accused of being involved in distributing forged US money allegedly produced in North Korea. Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed an extradition request for Garland, who is now in his 70s. Mr Garland's legal team wants the US to produce the evidence they are basing their extradition request on, but the High Court has ruled that a precedent was set in a previous case and that it is not necessary to make the documentation available here, Mr Garland said last week. A major fundraising event is taking place this Friday night in Kells to raise funds for the campaign to stop the extradition of Sean Garland, who has been refused legal aid. Mr Garland was involved in the North Korean Friendship Society, of which he was chairman, he explained, and he had been there and visitors from there had been in Ireland. During the 1970s and '80s, he was very active in developing and expanding the Workers' Party's international contacts and activity. He played a major role in organising and supporting solidarity campaigns across a wide area of the world, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Africa, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, where it was believed United States foreign policy had inflicted great suffering, repression and untold deaths on people. For decades, he has been a vocal and active critic of United States foreign policy. He said he was never an enemy of the American people but is a consistent opponent of the right wing reactionary policies which have been pursued by US administrations over many decades. Garland was first arrested in Belfast at a Workers' Party conference five years ago, and again in Dublin in 2009, when he was in the city for medical treatment. He says that bail conditions set are very onerous, including signing on at the local Garda station in Navan, which has been reduced to four days a week, and not being able to stay out of the country for more than 48 hours. “If I want to go away for longer, I have to go back to the High Court,†he said. There was also a bail figure of €100,000 cash sought. Numerous politicians and local authorities, including Navan and Kells Town Councils, have supported his campaign, as well as trade unions in Ireland and Britain. Belfast-based Rev Christoper Hudson, MBE, is chairperson of the Sean Garland Support Committee, while a local Meath committee is chaired by Seamus McDonagh, Kells. Friday night's fundraiser in the Headfort Arms Hotel, Kells, is headlined by Alabama 3, with the McGarry Brothers playing support. Doors open at 8pm. For information or tickets, contact Seamus McDonagh on (01) 8733 916 or email info@wpi-meath.org