Charges against 32 Afghan men who took part in a hunger strike at St Patrick's Cathedral last month were dropped at Dublin District Court in Kilmainham yesterday.
Mr Justice James Scally agreed to strike out the charges at the request of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Afterwards, it emerged the church authorities had asked the Garda to drop the charges.
The Ven David Pierpoint, archdeacon of Dublin, said the Garda had been asked to drop the charges and seemed to be happy to do so. "It is a satisfactory result for everybody. They can get on with their lives now," he said.
Two other men failed to appear in court and a bench warrant was issued for them. They were Saleem Asser (30) and Muhammad Husseni (27).
The men had been charged under Section 3 of the Forcible Entry and Occupation Act 1971 over their week-long sit-in and hunger strike at the Church of Ireland cathedral in mid-May. They held the protest in a bid to be granted asylum here. Nine juveniles also took part.
The protest ended on Saturday, May 20th, when the protesters agreed they would offer no resistance if gardaí entered the church to arrest them.
The men welcomed the striking out of the charges yesterday, and apologised for causing inconvenience.
Samander Khan Oriyakhail, interpreting for Sultan Kabirchakair, said: "We are quite thankful to God that our cases have been finished and he is saying we were not criminals."
He said protests were a right in democratic countries like Ireland. "Ireland is a free and democratic country and we are quite happy that we have been given the right to do the protest and were not charged as criminals."
Mr Khan Oriyakhail said the group was appealing to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell "to give us attention towards our cases as our country is not in a good condition . . . We don't want to go back or we don't want to be mentally tortured anymore. We are young guys and we can be beneficial to the society. We want to work and we want to live as . . . Irish people are living."
He said he did not know what happened to the two men who did not appear in court yesterday. "We have been disconnected with them for two weeks," he said. "We do apologise for any inconvenience to anyone we caused for that action but we don't regret. We are quite happy."
Asked about the condition of the nine underage protesters, he said he had met them many times. "They are quite good. They have been back to school."
Residents Against Racism described the dropping of the charges as a "great relief".
Spokeswoman Rosanna Flynn said all the men had been set up with solicitors "and we are confident that they will all be allowed to stay in Ireland".
She said "terrible" and "totally untrue" things had been said in the media during the protest. Claims they were involved in the Taliban and one was a rapist were "wrong" and "damaging", Ms Flynn said.
She was "very, very concerned" about the two men who did not appear in court and believed one had disappeared after a racist attack.
