AFGHAN hunger strikers who occupied St Patrick’s cathedral last May are preparing a legal action against the government for allegedly passing their details to Afghan authorities during the siege.

They are also planning to sue over newspaper reports claiming members of the group were Taliban soldiers who had raped and killed in Afghanistan, allegations they deny.

The protesters say the Irish government sent a fax to the Afghan embassy in either London or Berlin during the siege, and made a series of phone calls to the foreign ministry in Kabul.

The group of 33 men and eight minors who occupied the cathedral in protest at the Irish government’s asylum policy surrendered to gardai after seven days. They said they’d called off the protest after receiving phone calls from friends and relatives in Afghanistan who had been intimidated and threatened by police.

Gardai arrested 32 of the men inside the cathedral on May 20 and charged them under the False Entry and Occupation Act, but the charges were withdrawn by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

All but two of the group are still in Ireland. One has gone missing and another man has returned to Britain, where he first claimed asylum.

Lawyers for the group refused to comment last week and the Department of Justice has not received any legal papers, but representatives of the Afghans said they are about to take a case.

Rosanna Flynn of Residents Against Racism, who has campaigned on behalf of the group, said papers have been drawn up. “The Irish government released their names and backgrounds to an Afghan embassy, which is illegal under international law,” she said. “It was what led to them calling off the hunger strike because they began receiving phone calls from family members in Afghanistan saying threats had been made against them and they may be killed.

“Terrible, untrue, allegations were made by the papers also. At least half of them were in the Communist party, so they were anything but Taliban. There were also allegations about serial rapists and that’s not true either.”

The department denies having any communications with the Afghan authorities during the siege and said an internal inquiry was carried out when the allegations first surfaced.

“The department did not contact any Afghan embassy nor did the minister or any of the asylum or immigration services under the department,” said a spokesman. “We would have given their names to the gardai, and in court I presume they would have identified themselves.

“The question (of whether the government contacted the Afghan authorities) arose even before the siege was over. At the time we did an internal check and nobody had. Nor did any other government department. ”

But Osman Hottak, a spokesman for the group, said he is certain there was contact giving the identities of the cathedral protesters and that families had been threatened as a result.

“We couldn’t get any documents but I have sources in the (Afghan) Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the presidential palace who told me this is the case,” he said. “I know that there was a fax sent to either the embassy in London or Germany and direct calls were made to the foreign ministry in Afghanistan. It wasn’t the gardai — it was the government. It is because of this that our families were threatened. It’s one of the reasons we gave up the hunger strike protest.”

The Church of Ireland is attempting to recover about €50,000 from its insurers in lost visitor revenues during the siege. The 13th-century cathedral is one of Dublin’s most popular visitor attractions, and uses the €5 fee it charges to pay for restoration projects. An estimated 9,000 people would have visited that week.

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