>From: "The Workers' Party of Ireland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >NEWS RELEASE FROM THE WORKERS' PARTY OF IRELAND > >For immediate use > >Wednesday, 28 June 2000 > > >PARTY CONDEMNS JAILING OF YOUTH ON 'BEGGING' CHARGE > >The Workers' Party of Ireland has called for legislation to remove begging >from the schedule of criminal offences in Irish law. > >Workers' Party spokesman on Justice, Mr. Se�n O'Cionnaith was responding to >the revelation that a young Dublin man had been wrongfully jailed for >begging after a person who had been arrested on that charge had falsely >given the youth's name instead of his own. > >"In this day and age it is an absolute disgrace to be jailing people for >such trivial reasons. There are people guilty of extremely serious crimes >walking the streets of Dublin because the jails are full of people on minor >charges and for default on civil debts." > >"What particularly angers The Workers' Party is that it seems perfectly >legitimate for certain politicians to solicit millions of pounds in >so-called donations from businessmen, but someone down on their luck can end >up behind bars for asking for a few pence. Once again a case of one law for >the rich and another for the rest of us" said Se�n O'Cionnaith. > >There is currently a major political scandal in Ireland with two judicial >Tribunals investigating corruption by Irish political and business leaders. >It was recently revealed that a former Irish Prime Minister, Mr. Charles >Haughey of the Fianna Fail party received �8.5 million (almost 11 million >Euros) in donations (bribes) from wealthy business tycoons over a period of >several years. Many more senior politicians have also been implicated. Not >one of them has been jailed and it is unlikely in the current political >climate that any of them will be jailed. > > > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
