Bernadette McAliskey: "She is ill" (1'08")

The mother of freed IRA suspect Roisin McAliskey has attacked Germany's case against her daughter.

Roisin McAliskey is wanted in Germany to face charges in connection with an IRA mortar attack on a British army barracks in Osnabruck in 1996.

Her mother, Bernadette McAliskey also blamed the collapse of her daughter's physical and mental health on Roisin's treatment at the hands of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

She said her daughter's condition had been caused by the way in which Roisin was imprisoned and questioned, while pregnant, at Castlereagh in Northern Ireland.

Roisin McAliskey may suffer osteoporosis and a permanent limp

Roisin also suffered when she was in prison in England before extradition hearings which ended in January, she said.

Mrs McAliskey said she understood that according to the Home Office report on which Mr Straw made his decision, Roisin would never make a full recovery.

The former Mid-Ulster MP and Roman Catholic civil rights campaigner accused the German federal prosecutor who sought her daughter's extradition of being "a bully" and "a disgrace".

Bernadette McAliskey: "He is a bully." (3'18")

The British Home Secretary Jack Straw decided on Monday that Roisin was too ill to be extradited.

Following Mr Straw's decision, the German federal prosecutor asked Mr Straw to have his suspect tried for the offences in Britain.

Bernadette McAliskey responded by challenging the German official to "bring forward what he claims to be evidence against my daughter. He has none."

She said all four of the prosecutor's eye witnesses had excluded Roisin from being the person they saw or withdrawn statements identifying her.

Campaigners opposed the extradition attempt

"No human on the face of this earth has claimed that they they saw Roisin McAliskey in Germany at any time," she said.

Her daughter also had a clear alibi as she was working for a company that trained young unemployed Irish people during at least part of a 14 day period in which the prosecutor claimed his suspect was in Germany planning the attack, she said.

"To this day no member of the RUC and no member of the BKA, the German federal police, who have a right of access, have approached her employer or anyone else to check that she was at her place of work."

One piece of evidence, cellophane which the Germans said had Roisin's fingerprint on, was also recorded to have been found in three "contradictory" locations, she added.
 

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