Cera's Statement

May 6th, 2009

Clearly, I’m sure that you’ll agree that our family have set out a fairly substantial programme of work for this campaign. It is one which we believe can ultimately prove to be successful. It is also one that we cannot fully accomplish alone. We know that there are already many individuals who have pledged their support and help. We also need your assistance. So before you leave here tonight, we would ask you, particularly those of you who have travelled from other areas, to sign the contact sheets and to also leave contact numbers and email addresses.

Finally, our family is conscious of the fact that Colin’s case is by no means unique. Others are also being wrongly and unjustly imprisoned by the British state both here in Ireland and elsewhere too. We would ask you to give support and solidarity to their families also and to let them know that they are not alone or isolated.

One has only to look at the recent high-profile cases involving members of the Islamic community in Britain. Like Colin, they were arrested in a blaze of publicity. Like Colin, they were tried and convicted in the media. Yet those cases were proven to have no evidential basis whatsoever, but were purely politically motivated arrests. That has proven to be the case on previous occasions when Colin was arrested and imprisoned in 1993 and 1997. We firmly believe that the same will again be proven to be the case in relation to his present imprisonment.