Parachute Regiment to receive amnesty over Northern Ireland murder claims

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Veterans who served in Northern Ireland are finally set to be freed from the threat of prosecution.

In a victory for the Daily Mail, a planned statute of limitations will today be announced covering all incidents during the Troubles.

The move by Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis is expected to bring justice for up to 200 British soldiers who served during 30 years of bloody conflict in the Province.

But, in a bitter blow, it will also give an effective amnesty to IRA terrorists who murdered and maimed thousands during the period.

The plan could lead to the end of proceedings against a 65-year-old man who was arrested in Belfast last year in connection with the 1974 IRA pub bombings in Birmingham, in which 21 people were killed.

In a further blow, the move may come too late to halt the prosecution of two former soldiers which are already before the courts.

Ministers were advised that they would fall foul of human rights laws if the amnesty was applied on only one side.

A Government source said it would ‘end the cycle of investigations against our veterans’, which has been likened to a witch hunt.

Last night, the plan to end the harassment of former British soldiers was given a cautious welcome by veterans groups and some Conservative MPs.

But there were concerns about any perception of equivalence between terrorist killers and soldiers deployed to keep peace.

The decision to introduce a statute of limitations is likely to spark an angry reaction among Northern Ireland’s main political parties. Earlier this year, Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, described it as a ‘slap in the face’ for victims.

The DUP has also opposed the idea, with MP Gavin Robinson saying: ‘There should not be an amnesty, there should be no evaporation of justice for victims.’ But ministers believe it is time to ‘draw a line’ under the conflict.

Today’s package is likely to include a commitment to a South African-style ‘peace and recollection’ process designed to help the Province ‘move on’ from its dark past.

A Government source said: ‘We want to give Northern Ireland society the best chance of moving forward as one – to do that we must confront the difficult and painful reality that the realistic prospect of prosecutions is vanishingly small, and while that prospect remains Northern Ireland will continue to be hamstrung by its past.

‘Our legacy package will support Northern Ireland to move beyond an adversarial cycle that doesn’t deliver information or reconciliation for victims and survivors, nor end the cycle of investigations against our veterans.’

Last night, the relatives of civilians shot dead by soldiers during a notorious Troubles flashpoint in Ballymurphy, west Belfast, in 1971, said so-called ‘amnesty’ plans amounted to the Government ‘burying war crimes’.

Paul Young, a former Blues and Royals soldier now working with the Justice for Northern Ireland Veterans campaign group, said: ‘Like everything else, the devil is in the detail. We have always resisted the equivalence or to be seen as the same as terrorists and that’s the problem with this amnesty.

‘Veterans will be overjoyed if the legislation is acceptable to us and ends the constant cycle of trauma with repeated investigations. But we have seen things before and they haven’t been good – we welcome a chance to look at these proposals. We do believe the Government wants this to stop and is trying to find a way through, but it has to be the right way through.’

Tory MP Julian Lewis, former chairman of the Commons defence committee, said a statute of limitations on both sides, coupled with a truth and reconciliation process, was ‘the only way’ to draw a line under the ‘tortuous cycle of reinvestigation’.

‘There is no way that you can come up with a solution that will satisfy everybody,’ he said. Dr Lewis said the IRA ‘effectively already had a get-out-of-jail free card’ as a result of concessions granted by Tony Blair as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

The sentiment was echoed by former Tory chairman Norman Tebbit, whose late wife Margaret was severely injured in the IRA’s 1984 bombing of Brighton’s Grand Hotel.

Lord Tebbit said: ‘It won’t make much difference to the terrorists – Tony Blair gave the IRA a free pass years ago. But stopping the persecution of our soldiers would be a good thing – it has been completely unfair.’ But former Tory veteran minister Johnny Mercer said the idea was simplistic.

Mr Mercer, who quit the Government over its failure to end the witch hunt against British veterans, said: ‘A statute of limitations without qualification is an amnesty – something I have always opposed.

‘We should not, in all conscience, cut off pathways to justice where evidence exists, simply because of time passed. It would be wrong to do so, and veterans who fought to keep the peace within the strict constraints of the law in Northern Ireland have never advocated this path.’

It is estimated that a total of 3,250 people lost their lives during the Troubles, which marked the longest continuous deployment of the Armed Forces in British military history.

An estimated 90 per cent of those were killed in paramilitary attacks. In contrast, the military were responsible for 301 deaths, with half being linked to terrorist groups, and the other half tragic casualties. More than 1,400 military personnel were killed.

Earlier this month, prosecutors in Northern Ireland dropped murder charges against two veterans following the collapse of the landmark trial of two ex-paratroopers accused of murdering an IRA leader.

The prosecutions of Soldier F, accused of the murder of two people during Bloody Sunday in January 1972, and a veteran known as Soldier B, accused of murdering a teenager in Londonderry six months later, were shelved after a judge ruled statements taken at the time were inadmissible.

Philip Barden, a partner at legal firm Devonshires, has represented a number of veterans in relation to incidents during the Troubles. He said drawing a line and stopping criminal prosecution of veterans ‘can only be a good thing’.