A FRESH application for bail will be made next week by the pregnant Ms Roisfn McAliskey - following a decision by the British prison service to ease partially the security restrictions under which she is detained, her solicitor, Ms Gareth Pierce, has announced.
Ms McAliskey was informed of the change in her security status during a discretionary visit to Holloway Women's Prison by her mother, the former Mid-Ulster MP Ms Bernadette McAliskey. The prison authorities decided to reduce her security status from High Risk Category A to Standard Risk Category A.
Her mother said it was "a small step in the right direction". It was an indication that the prison service did not believe her daughter was an escape risk. "She should be out on bail."
As a result of the "scheduled review" of Ms McAliskey's security status she will not be subjected to strip searches before and after each prison visit. But strip searches will continue before and after court appearances and she may be searched at random within the prison.
She will also be subject to strip searches for the purposes of drug-testing.
The prison service statement said that Ms McAliskey would be given access to the activity centre at Holloway, where, for example, she would be allowed to use the dress-making shop.
Ms McAliskey, who is facing extradition to Germany in connection with an IRA mortar attack on a British army base in Osnabruck last June, is seven months pregnant, and has no access to the pregnancy unit at Holloway.
The chairwoman of the National Women's Council of Ireland, Ms Noreen Byrne, said she was very pleased for Roisin McAliskey and hoped this would now lead to an assurance that she could keep her baby with her
"Clearly the general reaction to the situation has pressed the British government into this decision," Ms Byrne said.
Last Thursday she visited Ms McAliskey in Holloway and expressed outrage at the uncertainty of her future and the impact of the isolation which Category A status involves.
Ms McAliskey's mother and another member of her family will be allowed to be present at the birth of her child, following a recent decision.
Meanwhile, separately, the Director of the Prison Service in Britain, Mr Richard Tilt, last night issued a stern warning to prison governors not to abuse the rules on strip searching prisoners. ,This followed an investigation by the prison ombudsman, Sir Peter Woodman, which found that prison officers had gone " way beyond the requirements the requirements in their own security manual."
It is expected an extradition hearing at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court next Wednesday will be adjourned while a petition to the House of Lords, arguing that the German application for extradition is contrary to the European Convention on Extradition, is considered.
Earlier, an Irish Labour Party delegation, including Mr Declan Bree, Mr Tommy Broughan, Mr Joe Costello and Senator Sean Maloney, visited Ms McAliskey at Holloway Prison.
Mr Bree said afterwards that it was "very welcome" news to be told that Ms McAliskey would not be categorised as a high-risk prisoner. However, he maintained, that "justice was not being done" when a woman who was in the final weeks of her pregnancy was being held as a Category A prisoner.