Image: Gerry McKerr, one of the men known as the 'Hooded Men' Credit: Brian Lawless / PA WIRE
Gerard McKerr - one of the so-called ‘Hooded Men’ - has passed away in the North.
McKerr was one of a group of 14 men who claim they were tortured by British security forces in the 1970s.
The 71 year old passed away in the early hours of this morning at his home in Lurgan. He had been sick for many years.
He is survived by his wife, three children and eight grandchildren.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has expressed his condolences and sympathy to the family and friends of Mr McKerr.
“I was saddened to learn of Gerry McKerr's death at his home in Lurgan on Thursday this morning,” Adams said, speaking in the United States.
“Gerry will and all the 'Hooded Man' deserve justice and Sinn Féin will continue to support their case,” he added.
The Hooded Men were detained by British security forces in 1971 and held at a British Army base in Co Derry. Between the ninth and 10th of August 1971 over 340 men were arrested by the British forces, but a group of 12 were selected to be put through “deep interrogation”.
The interrogation included prolonged hooding, sleep deprivation, forced stress positions, food and water deprivation and continuous exposure to loud static noise. The men were also in some cases thrown from helicopters.
Later in 1971 another two men were put through the same interrogation techniques.
The men have since claimed this treatment amounted to torture. In 1976 the men won their case against the UK, when the European Commission of Human rights ruled they had been subjected to torture. However, this ruling was overturned two years later when, in 1978, the European Court of Human Rights overturned the decision on appeal. The court found that while some of the techniques were “a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment”, they were not torture.
This ruling has had far reaching consequences – the techniques have been used in the interrogation of prisoners in the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as across the world in CIA bases and in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 1978 decision was used as justification for the US military’s torture techniques.
Read more: How the Hooded Men case impacted international torture law
New evidence emerged last year following the airing of an RTE documentary on the subject, leading to a call from the Irish government to the European Court of Human Rights to revise its judgment.
