Saturday January 27 at 7.00pm
Commonwealth Club, Northumberland Avenue, London WC2
The Pat Finucane Centre is urging all supporters of the family of murdered Belfast teenager Peter Mc Bride to join a picket on Saturday January 27 in London. Minister of State for the Armed Forces John Spellar MP is due to speak at the annual dinner of the Young Fabians at the Commonwealth Club.
John Spellar is one of three members of an Army Board which decided last November that the two Scots Guards convicted of Peter Mc Bride's murder should remain in the Armed Forces. The decision has been widely condemned in Ireland and abroad and a judicial review of the ruling will begin in Belfast High Court on February 5. All parties in Dail Eireann, the Irish parliament, have condemned the Army Board decision as have human rights groups, the Catholic church, members of the European parliament and US congress and a majority of elected members of the Northern assembly.
A spokesperson for the PFC said, "Spellar was the Government representative on the Army Board. As an MP and senior Minister he had a particular responsibilty to ensure that justice was done and was seen to be done. No-one expected the military members of the board to dismiss two soldiers convicted of killing a young Irishman. John Spellar should have had higher moral and ethical standards. We promised that this decision would return to haunt this Government. We hope that supporters of the Mc Bride family will ensure this will happen on Saturday night at the 40th annual dinner of the Young Fabians. Leaflets will be available for distribution and, as always, we are calling for a dignified protest."