Michael Campbell is serving time in the notorious century-old Lukiškės Prison in Vilnius, Lithuania. Campbell, alleged to be a member of the Real IRA, wound up in Lukiškės after his arrest and conviction in Lithuania on weapons smuggling charges. Investigators say he traveled to Lithuania with a lethal shopping list: rocket-propelled grenades, plastic explosives, and detonators, cords and timers. Lithuanian authorities cooperated with the British security service MI5 in the elaborate undercover operation that resulted in Campbell’s arrest.
In October 2011, Campbell was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.
Campbell claims he is innocent; that, in fact, MI5 set him up. Campbell’s defenders allege there are significant flaws in the prosecution’s case.
For Mary Larkin, the question of Campbell’s guilt or innocence is for others to decide. Larkin, of Port Richmond, is focused on just one thing: getting Michael Campbell transferred back to Ireland.
“I feel like this man, whether right or wrong, we’re just trying to get him back to Ireland to serve his sentence,” says Larkin. “He’s being denied his legal rights and his human rights. A European Union directive (EU Prisoner Transfer Agreement of December 2011) says prisoners should serve time in their own land. So right now, it’s about his human rights, and to have him back in Ireland.”
Larkin first came to know Campbell and Larkin as a result of letters she sent to him and to other prisoners. She also corresponds with Campbell’s brother Liam, who was also a suspect in the case. Lithuania spent several years trying to have Liam extradited from Northern Ireland for questioning, but he was just released from Maghaberry Prison following a judge’s finding that he might be subject to the same inhumane conditions currently endured by his brother.
Inmates held in Lukiškės Prison endure some of the worst overcrowding of any corrections facilities in Europe—“sometimes to an outrageous degree,” according to a 2008 report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Conditions inside are so horrific—filthy, cold, with no running water, and a well-documented history of violent mistreatment by guards—that the European Court of Human Rights recommended that Lukiškės be shut down.
It didn’t take long for Larkin to learn about the horrific conditions in which Campbell is held. His letters told the whole story.
“Theres no running water, they go without it for days, and they just melt snow. He described how prisoners get buckets of water from a horse and carriage that comes around. It’s cold water. In one letter, he told me how they (Campbell and other prisoners) had live electrical cables, and they were trying to heat the water with it. They also have to melt snow for the toilet. The toilet is is just a hole in the ground. People might not believe this, but it is true.”
Campbell’s legal representation, she says, hasn’t been effective, and the appeals process can be a moving target. “He’s due to go back to court on May 15, and then again on the 26th and 27th of June. He’s been waiting so long to go back to court for an appeal. Hopefully these dates will come to be.”
Campbell, she says, doesn’t complain much. In his letters, he typically expresses concern for others—his brother Liam for one, and, on other occasions, Larkin herself. A good deal of time, Campbell displays a remarkable level of mental toughness, she adds, as witness his sense of humor. “He still has his wit. He makes little jokes to me. It amazes me that his spirit is still there.”
On the other hand, Campbell apparently doesn’t see a resolution any time soon. “The man feels his case is pretty hopeless,” Larkin says. “He deserves to feel that people are working for him. He doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment.”
Larkin has set up an online petition to rally support for Campbell’s return to Ireland. You can see it here.
