A MAN is to appear at Limerick District Court in connection with an alleged assault on a staff worker at a Direct Provision centre last year.
Gardaí have confirmed that a summons was served this month on a man suspected as being the offender in an incident that was reported to the Askeaton Station last June.
The prosecution is related to a report in last week’s Limerick Post about an immigrant worker at a Direct Provision centre who claimed he was assaulted and intimidated to such an extent that he was forced out of his job.
The man, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, also expressed concerns about increased radicalisation among young men in the centre. He claimed that staff were subjected to physical attacks and mental abuse by gangs of radical young Muslim men.
Last Friday Mid West human rights group Doras Luimni accused the Limerick Post of incitement to hatred by publishing an article that was “entirely unfounded and absent of fact or evidence”
Group director Leonie Kerins warned the paper of criminal prosecution for incitement to hatred and said the paper would also be reported to the Press Council of Ireland for publishing racist and defamatory comments.
However, the Limerick Post responded by saying that it stood by the report.
“We interviewed the immigrant worker on two separate occasions. We secured video and documentary evidence that the assaults occurred as he stated and that they were reported to Gardaí at the time. We also have statements from asylum seekers in Limerick direct provision centres testifying to incidents of intimidation and expressing concern over increasing radicalisation among recent arrivals to the centres”, a statement from the paper explained.
by Daragh Frawley
