A court in Belfast has found that the treatment of the so-called 'Hooded Men' at the hands of the British authorities amounted to torture.

The 14 men have said they were hooded, beaten and deprived of sleep, food and water while being held without trial in the North in 1971.

They said they were also dangled from a helicopter and forced to listen to loud static noise.

The treatment was authorised at the highest level of the British administration.

The UK has previously conceded that authorisation for the techniques would have been given “at high level.”

Torture

In a majority ruling this morning, the Belfast Court of Appeal found that the treatment "would if it occurred today properly be characterised as torture."

It ruled that an effective criminal investigation should be held into the treatment.

The appeal was brought forward by the PSNI after the High Court that it must investigate the unlawful treatment of the men.

The Appeals Court found that due to the failings of a previous investigation by the PSNI Historical Enquiries Team any new PSNI investigation is not likely to "engender public confidence."

Independent Investigation

Speaking outside court, Francis McGuigan, one of the nine remaining hooded men said: "Today's Judgment makes it expressly clear that the treatment that I suffered at the hands of Ministers was torture and should be investigated by an independent police force."

"This treatment cannot be forgotten," he said.

"It has had lasting and terrible effects on my mental health to this day and I can only hope that this judgment will assist someone somewhere in the world that suffers torture at the hand of their Government."

Mr McGuigan's solicitor Darragh Mackin said: "Today is significant as the court firmly said that the rule of law is undermined if protection provided extends to protecting Ministers from investigation in respect of criminal offences committed by them."

"It is now essential that an effective and independent investigation is commissioned without any further delay," he said.

Human rights

The ruling comes after the European Court of Human rights rejected Ireland's call for the treatment to be defined as torture.

In 1978, the court ruled that while the men suffered "inhuman and degrading treatment" it did not amount to torture.

The Government appealed that ruling in 2014; however, last year the court ruled that it had not demonstrated the existence of new facts that were unknown to the court in 1978 or which would have had a decisive influence on the original judgment.

As a result it found there was no justification to change the ruling.

Main image shows Francis McGuigan (second left) welcoming a ruling by the Court of Appeal in Belfast that an investigation must be carried out into the treatment of 14 internees, known as the Hooded Men, in Northern Ireland in 1971 | 20-09-2019. Image: Rebecca Black/PA Wire/PA Images