Irishman condemns "lucky dip" French justice system

WHEN French police arrested Stephen King at his Brittany home in October 1992, they told the Irishman from Tyrone that they did not like the company he kept. They referred not to his past Irish republican contacts, but to Basque ETA separatists whom they, accused Mr King of supporting.

His five day detention and November 1995 trial were part of a round up of more than 80 Bretons and Basques.

Mr King (42) was later convicted of association de malfaiteurs, a vague conspiracy charge without reference to a specific event or date.

He was given a one year suspended prison sentence. He has been trying to clear his name for the past 4 1/2 years; although he had met Basques socially, Mr King says he has provided them with no support.

But this week, Mr King's appeal was rejected by a Paris tribunal.

His earlier brushes with Irish and French authorities arose from his affiliation to the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), which he says he left in 1984. Charged with weapons possession in, Dublin in 1979, he jumped bail two years later and has no to Ireland since. He now lives with Frenchwoman and works as a technical translator.

In August 1982, Mr King had just arrived at the Paris home of an old IRSP friend, Mr Michael Plunkett, when Capt Paul Barril, then of the Elysee presidential palace's "anti terrorist unit", planted explosives and weapons in Mr Plunkett's apartment. Mr Barril had been given the weapons by a Frenchman to whom Plunkett, had entrusted them a year earlier.

Mr King, Mr Plunkett and Mr Plunkett's friend Ms Mary Reid were arrested and imprisoned for nine months. The infamous affaire des Irlandais de Vincennes was born.

The Irlandais de Vincennes were cleared in September 1983, but the French government gave them, just one franc in symbolic damages for their nine month detention. Although investigative reporting by Le Monde and by authors and television documentary producers - as well as court testimony - proved that Capt Barril had framed the three, Capt Barril's only punishment was a fine of less than the £50.

When Mr King, was arrested for the second time in October 1992, 10 years after he was framed, the police told him "the affaire des Irlandais de Vincennes will not help you". The only evidence against him this time was that his name and address had been found weeks earlier in a notebook belonging to a militant Breton Basque couple.

A year later, new evidence was introduced graphologists said a 12 word recipe for explosives found hundreds of kilometres away near the Franco Spanish border was probably written by Mr King. He denies this, and his lawyer protested that handwriting analysis is unreliable.

Dealing with French justice, Mr King says, "is a lucky dip - when you put your hand in and try to, get the lucky ticket. In the Vincennes case, we had a very, good judge, who smelled something bad and risked his career. The judge in this second case is known to be on the far right."