Rabbitte has plan to free Shell gas protesters

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte has proposed a solution to end the incarceration of the five Mayo men jailed for contempt of court in connection with their opposition to the Corrib gas pipeline.

The ongoing imprisonment of the men, now in its 64th day, was "bordering on becoming a national disgrace", Mr Rabbitte said. The men could be freed if they apologised to the court, while Shell simultaneously withdrew the injunction restraining the men from interfering with work on the pipeline, he said.

The Government must also appoint an agreed negotiator to report on all issues of concern to the men, he added. They were jailed after refusing to give an undertaking to the High Court that they would not interfere with work. A spokesman for the jailed men said they were willing to purge their contempt, but it was essential that Shell dropped the injunction "as a first step".

However, in a statement yesterday Shell said there were legal impediments to its lifting the injunction - relating to the company's "future position" regarding the pipeline.

The company could not understand why the men would not purge their contempt, "given the significant steps we have already taken in regard to suspending work on both the onshore and offshore pipelines, our continued commitment to dialogue and our support of the safety review", the statement said.

The men are being visited in Cloverhill Prison today by Independent TDs Jerry Cowley, Tony Gregory, Joe Higgins, Finian McGrath, Catherine Murphy, Séamus Healy and MEP Marian Harkin.

"These men are now about to spend their 63rd day in jail for simply trying to protect their own lives, and that of their families and community," Dr Cowley said yesterday.

"Shell and their partners are refusing to lift the injunction that they used to put them there. All reasonable people will demand that Shell do so immediately so that dialogue can at last begin," he added.

Supporters of the men picketed the Norwegian embassy in Dublin yesterday in protest at the involvement of Norwegian company Statoil in the project. Organisers of the protest said they were picketing the embassy to raise awareness of Statoil's role in the construction of the controversial on-shore pipeline and to highlight the issue in the Norwegian media.

"A 36½ per cent share of Shell is owned by Statoil. It's not generally realised that Statoil is behind Shell, and we want people to know that they do have a role in the Corrib crisis," protester Anthony Cahill said. The campaign had attracted the attention of the Norwegian media, he said. A Norwegian newspaper photographer attended yesterday's protest and other journalists were flying into Dublin yesterday evening, Mr Cahill said.

He hoped the attention would encourage the embassy to reply to a letter from the wives of the five jailed men, appealing for the ambassador's intervention.