The Thurles Three

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Wednesday April 25, 2007 10:28 by LM - Victims of Legal Profession Society

Jailed man is denied Habeus Corpus

Thomas Kennedy, an elderly Tipperary farmer is still in jail after over 40 days. He was put in jail for contempt of court by Justice Olive Buttimer when he insisted on reading his own sworn affidavit from the witness box. He has written records of the purchase of the farm from his late brother yet the court refuses to allow his evidence to be heard and sent him to jail. He refuses to be removed from his farm and therefore cannot purge the contempt. He needs the light of publicity to protect him. This is the role of Indymedia.

They are not the Rossport Five, the Birmingham Six or indeed the Guildford Four, they are the Thurles Three who were wrongfully imprisoned in Limerick Prison when they refused to vacate the farm of land which they purchased from their now deceased brother some thirty odd years ago.

They are Thomas Kennedy, Peter Kennedy and Mark Kennedy of Rossestown, Thurles, County Tipperary. The evidence they possess no man can rebuke or discredit. Their treatment by the Courts, the legal profession and some judges has been nothing short of appalling, disgusting and scandalous. It is Ireland's equivalent to cattle rustling in the Wild West, a stark reminder of what the Celtic Tiger has brought to many thousands of Irish citizens.

A blunt reminder of what can happen when a democratic institution acts outside and above the Law and the Constitution with no oversight and the inflicted left to the mercy of what can only be described as tyrants.