RIGHT TO SILENCE SHOULD NOT BE DIMINISHED

IF, as reported today, the Government plans to extend restrictions on the
right of silence to serious criminal cases, it would be an ominous step on
the road towards the creation of a police state.

No such move was presaged when the draconian anti-terrorist security laws,
including curbs on the right to silence for persons charged under the
Offences Against the State Act, were being rushed through the Dail last
month.

For the Government to curtail the right to silence in a wide range of
criminal cases, as recommended to Justice Minister O'Donoghue by a
departmental working group, would be a retrograde step subverting the
principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty. It seems
reasonable to infer that the Government has been thinking along these lines
in the broader legal context because part of the brief set for the working
group established after an efficiency probe into garda operations, was to
examine the constitutional implications of applying such draconian measures
generally.

Essentially, the recently-introduced anti-terrorist legislation imposes
severe restrictions on the right to silence for suspects being questioned
under the Offences Against the State Act.

Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne's call for curbs on the right to silence in
criminal cases has properly been challenged by the Irish Council for Civil
Liberties. Concerns over the danger of insinuating these powers into the
existing body of criminal law, will be shared by the public at large.

If the right of suspects to remain silent were removed, it would amount to
a serious erosion of the fundamental legal tenet of innocence until proven
guilty. At present the onus of proof remains with the State. To shift it in
the manner suggested by Commissioner Byrne is neither necessary not
advisable.

To do so could undermine public co-operation with, and support for the
Gardai, positions already strained by the recent rash of 'blue flu' strikes
and other tactics aimed at winning better pay and conditions for a force
which had earned considerable public respect during its 75-year history.

For some time now, the Commissioner has been keen to stimulate public
debate on the right to silence during questioning. In reality, however, the
gardai already have wide powers and further draconian measures, diluting
basic human rights, would be no substitute for more effective levels of
policing and detection in order to bring criminals to justice.

To introduce such measures across the board at a time when crime is falling
would represent a major inroad into civil liberties and could lead to
serious miscarriages of justice.