The British Home Secretary may decide at the end of the month on the extradition of Ms Roisin McAliskey to Germany, according to her supporters after she was formally committed for extradition at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London yesterday. Mr Jack Straw has been considering the details of Ms McAliskey's case since November, and her supporters believe he will come to a decision as quickly as possible.
They believe Mr Straw may decide within a month because Ms McAliskey has decided not to seek a writ of habeas corpus in the High Court. However, the Home Office last night refused to confirm a date for Mr Straw's decision, saying only that it would be made shortly.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, said he hoped the British authorities would give "the fullest weight to humanitarian considerations when taking the decision". "On humanitarian grounds it is essential that Ms McAliskey should continue to receive the medical attention she requires and that her daughter's needs are taken fully into account."
Ms McAliskey is wanted in Germany to face charges in connection with an IRA mortar attack on a British army base at Osnabruck in June 1996. She has maintained her innocence since her arrest at her home in Coalisland, Co Tyrone, in November 1996, and her mother, the former Mid-Ulster MP, Ms Bernadette McAliskey, repeated the claim yesterday. Arguing that her daughter did not have a case to answer, she said: "My daughter is innocent. She is not charged with any offence and I believe we will resolve this matter fairly. The most important thing is that the evidence put forward to sustain a hearing is fundamentally flawed. There is no evidence."
Meanwhile, one of her supporters did not appear confident that Mr Straw would prevent the extradition. Speaking outside the court, the journalist Jeremy Hardy, who provided £30,000 as part of Ms McAliskey's surety, said that although Mr Straw had seen evidence that she was innocent, he believed the British government would extradite her to Germany.
"We fear that the government is so desperate to please loyalists that they will use Roisin as a sacrifice. I am not optimistic, but Mr Straw has evidence that Roisin is unwell and evidence that she is innocent."
Ms McAliskey will remain on conditional bail, with her seven-month-old daughter, Loinnir, at a mother-and-baby unit at the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital in south London.
Earlier yesterday, the deadlock in the proceedings was cleared when the magistrate, Mr Nicholas Evans, who last year refused to commit Ms McAliskey in her absence, complied with a decision in the High Court before Christmas which allowed him to proceed.