Soldiers' killer 'to be transferred to jail in North'
Prison chiefs have agreed to transfer an Irish soldier who murdered three colleagues back to a jail in the North, it emerged today.
But after authorities north of the border granted Michael McAleavey permission to repatriate, his lawyer urged the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell not to hold up the move.
McAleavey, one of the longest serving inmates on either side of the Irish border, has been held for 24 years for the triple killings in the Lebanon.
Claiming his conditions in Dublin’s Mountjoy Jail are inhumane, he has fought to be relocated closer to his family home on the Falls Road, west Belfast.
If he succeeds, McAleavey is then expected to apply to the Life Sentence Review board in a bid to win his release.
The families of his victims and Irish military authorities are understood, however, to be opposed to any relocation out of the state.
His campaign took a major step forward however when the Northern Prisons Minister, Paul Goggins, offered no objections.
A Northern Ireland Prisons Service spokesman said today: “We will take him, and we are about to inform the Department of Justice in the Republic that’s the case.
“But the final decision as to whether he will be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence in Northern Ireland rests with them.”
McAleavey, described by some as ’the forgotten man’ due to his time behind bars, received three life sentences for murdering Privates Peter Burke, Thomas Murphy, and Corporal Greg Morrow while on UN peacekeeping duties in 1982.
A row had flared over Jews being allowed through checkpoints while Arabs were stopped and searched.
After Prison chiefs in Belfast gave their approval, McAleavey’s solicitor, Joe Rice, expressed his hope that the move could happen before Christmas.
The lawyer said: “We would urge Michael McDowell to deal with it as expeditiously as possible on humanitarian grounds, given the age of Mr McAleavey’s father.
“He’s one of the longest serving prisoners, and this request to be transferred back to his home jurisdiction in Northern Ireland is a reasonable one.”
Mr Rice added that his client had received a raw deal compared to paramilitary killers released early as part of the Irish peace process.
“If he had joined one of the illegal armies in Northern Ireland and been convicted he would have been released under the Good Friday Agreement.
“But because he joins the legitimate Army of the Irish Republic he finds himself in this situation.”
A spokesman for the Department of Justice in Dublin declined to comment on the case.
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