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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
Entertainment
Sophie McLaughlin

The Hooded Men: BBC show to give new first-hand accounts from those subject to the 'five techniques' interrogations in NI

A new BBC documentary is set to take a deeper look into the case of the "Hooded Men" and the history of the use of the "Five Techniques" in Northern Ireland.

In 1972, 14 men were interned without trial in Northern Ireland and subjected to what the UK authorities described as “deep interrogation”.

The techniques included hooding and being put in stress positions, forced to listen to white noise and deprived of sleep, food and water - which has been sometimes called the "Five Techniques".

Read more: PSNI decision to stop "hooded men" investigation should be quashed, court rules

Those affected became known as the "Hooded Men" and for over 50 years, these men have campaigned for the UK authorities to acknowledge the truth of what happened to them and to apologise for it.

In 1976, the European Commission of Human Rights ruled that the five techniques amounted to torture.

The new documentary will speak to some of the surviving "Hooded Men" and their continuing battle to receive an apology for what they endured.

"Hooded Men" Jim Auld, Patrick McNally, Liam Shannon, Francis McGuigan, Davy Rodgers, Brian Turley and Joe Clarke (Brian Lawless/PA Wire)

The BBC said: "The film makes use of intimate, first-hand testimony from some of the surviving Hooded Men, interviews with retired senior members of the security services and declassified government documents.

"Their story has ramifications far beyond the UK. The Hooded Men provided a blueprint for some of the most notorious state-sponsored torture in recent years, from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay."

It includes access to their legal battle for their treatment to be recognised as torture in the UK’s Supreme Court to reveal the full horror of one of the "darkest episodes in British intelligence history".

The Hooded Men will air on BBC One NI on January 23 at 10.40pm.

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