9.2.05
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Blair apologises to Conlon, Maguire families
09/02/2005 - 12:52:30
Gerry Conlon
British Prime Minister Tony Blair today publicly apologised to the Conlon and Maguire families for their wrongful imprisonment for the IRA bomb attacks in Guildford and Woolwich in 1974.
Mr Blair said: "I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice."
The Prime Minister, in a television statement, added: "That is why I am making this apology today - they deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated."
Mr Blair’s apology came in a TV statement delivered in his room at the House of Commons before meeting the family members in private in his offices there after Prime Minister’s Question Time.
The Prime Minister said: "The Guildford and Woolwich bombings killed seven people and injured over 100.
“Their loss, the loss suffered by their families, will never go away. But it serves no one for the wrong people to be convicted for such an awful crime.
“It is a matter of great regret when anyone suffers a miscarriage of justice. There was a miscarriage of justice in the case of Gerard Conlon and all the Guildford Four as well as Giuseppe Conlon and Annie Maguire and all of the Maguire Seven.
“And, as with the others, I recognise the trauma that the conviction caused the Conlon and Maguire families and the stigma which wrongly attaches to them to this day.
“I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and such an injustice.
“That’s why I am making this apology today. They deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated.”
Blair apologises to Conlon, Maguire families
09/02/2005 - 12:52:30
Gerry Conlon
British Prime Minister Tony Blair today publicly apologised to the Conlon and Maguire families for their wrongful imprisonment for the IRA bomb attacks in Guildford and Woolwich in 1974.
Mr Blair said: "I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice."
The Prime Minister, in a television statement, added: "That is why I am making this apology today - they deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated."
Mr Blair’s apology came in a TV statement delivered in his room at the House of Commons before meeting the family members in private in his offices there after Prime Minister’s Question Time.
The Prime Minister said: "The Guildford and Woolwich bombings killed seven people and injured over 100.
“Their loss, the loss suffered by their families, will never go away. But it serves no one for the wrong people to be convicted for such an awful crime.
“It is a matter of great regret when anyone suffers a miscarriage of justice. There was a miscarriage of justice in the case of Gerard Conlon and all the Guildford Four as well as Giuseppe Conlon and Annie Maguire and all of the Maguire Seven.
“And, as with the others, I recognise the trauma that the conviction caused the Conlon and Maguire families and the stigma which wrongly attaches to them to this day.
“I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and such an injustice.
“That’s why I am making this apology today. They deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated.”
