Amal Clooney is expected to be joined by husband George in Belfast when she represents a group of men who allege they were tortured by the British army during the Troubles.
The human rights lawyer is part of the legal team taking a case on behalf of the 14 “hooded men” – former republican suspects who claim they were subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment in 1971, when a policy of internment was in place in Northern Ireland.
The men allege they were hooded, forced to listen to constant loud static noise, deprived of sleep, food and water, as well as being forced to stand in stress positions and then beaten if they fell.
As part of the case Amal Clooney will accuse the former prime minister Edward Heath of authorising the use of torture during internment.
She will travel to Belfast next month and it is expected her husband George will accompany her after the actor revealed he was planning to visit Ireland.
He said in an interview: “I’m embarrassed that I’ve never been properly there before now. I’ve been talking about going there for years and Bono has been trying to get me to do a bike ride around Ireland with him.
“I’m definitely going to make a visit this summer. Amal has been several times, so she can show me around.”
In 1976 the European commission of human rights upheld a complaint by the Irish government that the hooded men had been tortured, but the ruling was later overturned on appeal.
The European court of human rights ruled the men had been subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment but did not conclude it was torture.
Last year the Irish government backed the men’s campaign to have the case reopened, after new evidence emerged in British files.
Belfast legal firm Kevin R Winters & Co called in Amal Clooney to take on the case. Her other clients include WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is fighting extradition from the UK to Sweden over rape allegations.
Meanwhile, a judicial review has begun to challenge David Cameron’s decision not to hold a public inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
Rights Watch UK launched the legal bid to overturn the government’s refusal to set up an independent inquiry into state collusion between the lawyer’s UDA killers and members of the security forces. At the time of the murder at least 29 members of the Ulster Defence Association’s main terror unit in west Belfast were working for one or more branches of the security forces.
Yasmine Ahmed, director of Rights Watch UK, explained the action: “Despite the UK government acknowledging that it was involved in the extra-judicial execution of Patrick Finucane and committing itself on a number of occasions to holding a public inquiry, it now refuses to do so. In so doing, the government is in breach of its international human rights obligations to carry out an independent, effective and prompt investigation.
“The government has continually cited expense as a reason for not holding a public inquiry. Considering the excessive amounts of money spent fighting the family in a case that is likely to go all the way to the supreme court, and the expense of the paper based reviews, this seems like yet another tactic to prevent the Finucane family, and the British people, from learning the truth.”
