Prosecution lingers for IRA and soldiers

CONTROVERSIAL plans for an ‘amnesty’ on Troubles prosecutions have been scrapped, with immunity only granted to those who cooperate with a ‘truth commission’.

Proposals last year to end prosecutions of all soldiers and terrorists for alleged offences in Northern Ireland prior to the 1998 peace agreement were condemned across the province’s political divide.

In the Queen’s Speech yesterday, the Government revealed immunity would be granted if suspects cooperate with a ‘truth recovery’ process. A new body will investigate every Troubles death and produce a public historical record.

Prosecution will still loom for IRA terrorists who fail to comply – as well as Army veterans. Paul Young, of Justice for Northern Ireland Veterans, said the plans ‘allow a pathway to justice, but our sole mandate has been to stop the prosecutions of veterans and it should do that’.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said people must not be ‘able to rewrite the narrative which suggests that the terrorists... are somehow either exonerated or can walk away.’ Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill said the way to deal with the past is ‘not to give impunity and immunity to British serving forces’.

Ongoing hearings will continue, it is understood. Immunity will also apply to suspects of offences across the UK.