Support urged for Kelly McBride's Brent East campaign

The Irish community in London and others who are interested in
human rights have been urged to support Kelly McBride, in her
candidacy for this month's Westminster by-election in the
Brent East constituency of London.

She is standing to highlight the campaign to have the two
soldiers who killed her brother dismissed from the British
Army.

Despite being sentenced to life imprisonment, Mark Fisher and
James Wright were released from jail three years later and
allowed back into the British Army.

In June the Court of Appeal in Belfast ruled that Fisher and
Wright should not have been allowed back into the British
Army. But the Ministry of Defence last month rejected demands
to have Fisher and Wright kicked out of the British Army.

While soldiers have been dismissed from the British Army for
relatively minor offences, the continued employment and
promotion of the convicted killers of Belfast man Peter
McBride remains a hugely controversial issue for northern
nationalists.

Sinn Fein North Belfast representative Gerry Kelly has said
that he will be travelling to London to assist the campaign
for justice.

"The McBride family have fought a long, determined and
dignified campaign to get justice for Peter McBride," Mr Kelly
said.

Kelly McBride begins an election tour of Brent East this
weekend, when she will be accompanied by activists and
supporters.

Speaking from her north Belfast home as she prepared to fly to
London later this week to fight the by-election, Ms McBride
said: "The whole aim of the campaign, and the decision to
fight in this by-election, is solely to get justice for my
brother."

Up to 40,000 homes in the constituency have received a letter
from Kelly McBride calling on people in Brent East to help put
pressure on the British government to dismiss the pair.

Meanwhile, leading lawyers Imran Khan and Michael Mansfield
have publicly backed the campaign.

Imran Khan, who represented the family of murdered black
teenager Stephen Lawrence, last night backed the McBride
family's campaign.

"Not only were convicted murderers allowed to remain in the
army, they were then sent to take part in an unjust war in
Iraq," Mr Khan said.

"This case is the epitomy of an appalling vista, I support
Kelly McBride."

The intervention of the prominent lawyer is seen as highly
significant, given the high percentage of Asian voters in the
Brent East constituency.

Mr Mansfield QC, who is currently representing some of the
Bloody Sunday families in the Saville Inquiry, accused the
Ministry of Defence of having treated the McBride family with
"breathtaking contempt".

"This exemplifies the manner of modern government and that is
why people have lost trust in mainstream politics," he said.