Shoukri charges will not stand in court
BY Ciaran Barnes
30/06/2006
The Public Prosecution Service will be forced to drop charges of Ulster Defence Association membership against the leading loyalist Ihab Shoukri because the organisation is not specified, legal sources have confirmed.
The 32-year-old was remanded in custody yesterday, charged with UDA membership.
However, it is unlikely he will be convicted on this charge because the British government recognise the organisation’s ceasefire.
In March 2004, four men who kidnapped the dissident republican Bobby Tohill had IRA membership charges against them dropped because the organisation was not specified.
Ihab Shoukri is in the same position. Legal experts have predicted he will be released.
A barrister who spoke to Daily Ireland said the charges “could not be stood up”.
“The courts set a precedent with the Tohill case, which they will have to stick to,” the barrister said.
The charges against Mr Shoukri are connected to a PSNI raid on the loyalist Alexandra bar in north Belfast in March.
The court heard that, when Mr Shoukri was charged on Wednesday evening, he replied: “I have recently been acquitted of that charge. I have to ask whose agenda is being served here.”
Mr Shoukri’s defence argued that the court did not have the authority to remand him in custody. His lawyers cross-examined the PSNI chief inspector about the evidence.
The officer said that, on March 2, police entered the Alexandra bar as a result of intelligence indicating that a UDA show of strength was to take place. Several people were found on a stairwell wearing paramilitary-style uniform.
Seventeen people were arrested. One person was found in possession of a written speech in support of the UDA. The last page related to the preparing of premises for a show of strength.
The police officer said comparisons with forms that Ihab Shoukri had filled in for a passport, a driving licence and a Housing Executive application had led a handwriting expert to conclude that such were the similarities that Mr Shoukri was indeed the writer of the speech.
The expert confirmed that Mr Shoukri’s fingerprints had not been found on the paper.
Mr Shoukri’s counsel Charles MacCreanor said in closing that the case was going nowhere and should be stopped.
However, the resident magistrate was satisfied the defendant should be remanded in custody. Mr Shoukri will appear again on Monday via video link.
