Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘Injustice to give killing amnesty to cops & terrorists’
Police federation chair calls for legacy solution
GIVING terrorists or cops an amnesty from prosecution would be a “monstrous injustice”, the Police Federation for Northern Ireland has said.
Chairman Mark Lindsay addressed the legacy issue when speaking to more than 100 delegates at the organisation’s annual conference in Co Antrim yesterday.
He told them it would be “disrespectful and a shameful act of betrayal” to link the names of officers with those of terrorists.
The Government is consulting on measures to address the toxic legacy of thousands of unresolved conflict killings and injuries.
An amnesty is not part of the consultation, despite calls from some MPS for a statute of limitations protecting members of the armed forces from prosecution.
Mr Lindsay said: “Let me be clear – this organisation is totally opposed to any legislation which proposes an amnesty for any crime.
“That’s any crime, whether committed by a police officer or terrorist from any side of the divide. Society must now decide whether the solution is a political solution or a criminal justice solution.
“If justice is to be done fairly then society must move away from rumour, story-telling and political agenda and deal only with facts in law.
“It would be the most monstrous injustice to our murdered men and women if we were to accept some half-baked idea that resulted in the names of our colleagues being sacrificed for the sake of political expediency. That would be the ultimate insult.”
The Government is consulting on mechanisms including an Historical Investigations Unit to search for opportunities for criminal probes, a separate truth recovery process aiming to find answers for victims
and more money for inquests into Troubles deaths. PSNI chief constable George Hamilton said it was almost four years since measures addressing the past had been agreed by politicians and the Government.
He added: “None of us are above the law but my concern is... the impression that is created is there is a greater focus on the involvement of the police and the military during the period of the Troubles than there was on the terrorists.
“Of course over 90% of the deaths were caused by the various terrorist groups, both republican and loyalist, so I think there needs to be some sort of recalibration of the attention given to this.
“That is not to say police or military personnel who acted outside of the law, that that should be ignored.”
If justice is to be done society must move away from rumour, story-telling & political agenda MARK LINDSAY CO ANTRIM YESTERDAY