RUC officers who held a Belfast man as a murder suspect for six and a half days before freeingwithout charge breached his human rights, the European Court of Human Rightsheardtoday.
Mr Gerard O'Hara, 48, described as a prominent member of Sinn Féin, was arrested following the murder in 1985 of Kurt Konig, who worked for a canteen catering firm serving police stations in Derry.
Mr O’Harawas held for 48 hours,and his detention period was then extended for a further five days.
After his release Mr O'Hara unsuccessfully sued the Chief Constable of the RUC for false imprisonment and wrongful arrest, and has now taken his case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Today the Human Rights judges heard lawyers for Mr O'Hara claim that he was not arrested on a "reasonable suspicion of commission of an offence" and that his detention was therefore a violation of his right to liberty and security, safeguarded by the Human Rights Convention, to which Britain is a signatory.
Lawyers for the UK government, in the dock as upholders of Britain's Human Rights Convention obligations, said that Mr O'Hara was arrested following a Special Branch tip-off to the RUC that he was involved in the murder.
The Special Branch briefed an RUC detective superintendent that Mr O'Hara was an IRA member and was implicated in the killing.
Mr O'Hara's writ for damages against the RUC Chief Constable alleged that his arrest and detention at Castlereagh had been unlawful because the arresting officer's suspicions were not based on his own knowledge.
He said that the Chief Constable had failed to prove that the police officer who directed the arrest had reasonable grounds for suspicion.
But the writ was thrown out by the High Court,the Court of Appeal and finally by theHouse of Lords in 1996.
A verdict is expected later this year.
PA