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A UK PARLIAMENTARY committee report into the ‘On The Run’ letters issued by the British government was published today, and its findings are damning of the ‘administrative system’ that had been in place.
The Committee for Northern Irish Affairs had been investigating the 187 ‘comfort letters’ sent to suspected Republicans since April 2014. Its conclusion? That the lawfulness of the letters was ‘questionable’, but also that the system involved ‘should never have taken place’.
Other findings of today’s report include:
Laurence Robertson MP, Chair of the Committee stated that the committee’s responsibility was to ‘serve the victims and their relatives’.
“If any scheme had been put in place at all, which is questionable, it should have been properly introduced and correctly administered,” he said.
Regardless of the intentions, this scheme has caused further hurt to people who have suffered far too much already, and has led to further suspicions being raised.
The ‘On The Runs’ were Republicans in Northern Ireland who were suspected of terrorist crimes committed between 1967 and 1998 but who had never actually been charged.
The letters were issued subsequent to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which allowed for anyone convicted of a paramilitary crime in the North to be granted early release.
As the Agreement didn’t apply to those suspects who were never charged, the letters were issued to provide ‘comfort’ to the people in question that they weren’t wanted by security forces in any way.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was among those who gave evidence to the inquiry. He rejected claims that the letters were unlawful and said the scheme was essential for the success of the peace process.
The letters first came to light when they were used successfully by Republican John Downey to collapse his trial for the 1982 Hyde Park bombing in London in February of last year.
Downey had been issued an ‘on the run’ letter in error in 2007 assuring him that he would never be tried for the crime.
The PSNI, who were involved in checking the letters but claim they knew nothing of their content before 2011, come in for some strong criticism in the report, not least in that the role they performed in the process was a ‘political, not a policing one’.
Responding to the report’s findings, PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton said “It is important to remember that the police played a crucial role but did not have an overview of the administrative scheme.”
I want to repeat our commitment to dealing with the past professionally and comprehensively
But I have to balance this responsibility with my requirement to keep people safe in the present day.
As I have said before, this process goes far beyond policing.
We will continue to play our part and continue to encourage others to play theirs.
The full 111-page report can be found here.
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This is result of letting a cult like group involve into our way of life support by a blind and deaf pc brigade. It to late for change Ireland has little hope and maybe some other countries. The UK is finished it be very hard task to undo what has grown there.
@: you mean Christianity?
@: are you talking about jehovahs? Mormons?
Actually they are not that bad once you get to know them
Admittedly they have some odd customs with blood and marriage and beliefs ;-)
Returning Islamic State Jihadis popping back to receive their benefits.
Send them back to their Islamic state and let e SAA, Kurds, Syriacs, Yazidi, Iraqis finish them off….https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/36225430/yazidi-children-held-by-islamic-state-found-in-hospital-basement-in-mosul/#page1
More Rats leaving the sinking ship that is isis . There’ll be plenty more of this type of arrest in the coming weeks , however Mayor Khan will try and get them housed in Chelsea , in those new 1.8 million pound council houses .
Don’t be daft. Sadiq Khan’s alright. And the last thing he wants is more terror tearing through the streets of London.
@Mick Tobin: Don’t be daft ? This is the man who wanted the president of the United States banned because he had put a temporary ban on 6 countries , while the mayor himself when he was a lawyer defended Islamic militants , pushed for Louis Farakhan to be allowed into the country , even though he had called for a genocide of white people , had shared speaking platforms with convicted islamic terrorists , has spoken at muslim meetings where isis banners have been flown , called moderate muslims ”Uncle Toms” and says the Met Police do not have enough funds to follow returned Jihadis , even though he took money and personnel from their resources to set up a unit to chase down people who said things against islam on social media platforms .
@Ken Hayden: I will look into this, but contexts do matter. The mayor of Rotterdam, also a muslim, has also been accused of sharing the stage with people with radical ideas, but he in fact told them to p*** off elsewhere if they didn’t like it here.
Khan is right to shun divisions in the city, and my feeling’s been that this has been behind what he’s done, at least recently.
But sure, it pays to be critical, and I’ve taken note of what you just said. However, I now need to badly go and play Irish tunes in the pub, so I bid you goodbye for now.
@Ken Hayden: defended Islamic militants? Can you clarify whether that was as a lawyer or as a citizen? Also can you clarify that it wasn’t perpetrators of 9/11 as was previously stated on this site?
@Mick Tobin: He was a legal consultant for Zacarius Moussaoui , the shoe bomber .
There are links here to various news reports and video clips , if you follow them you will open up a trail . I will give you two links , one about Khan and the other about the Quilliam foundation .
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-27/london-mayors-ties-extremism-call-commitment-fighting-terror-question
https://medium.com/@jonasspooner/blowback-in-manchester-and-why-quilliam-must-be-investigated-f9472be1f26c
@Ken Hayden: In the second link you will also find a connection to Irish Jihadis . I probably couldn’t say the name here , but you will find it .
Why even entertain them. Round up their family and put them all on a flight back to where they came from. Free flight home, everyone is a winner. Especially the UK taxpayer.
@KingBen: put their families back on flights to Leicester and Birmingham?
@Richard Lippy Collins: no, they are not from Leicester or Birmingham. I’d suggest the middle east somewhere, doesn’t really matter. Just out of the country that welcomed them and gave them free houses, education, health and opportunities.
@KingBen: yep,lock stock,and barrel,,,total
Muslim and western values are not compatible we must stand up and defend our native cultures before Islamic domination prevails . it’s simple, Europe must wake up. Many parts of France,Britain,Holland and Belgium it’s too already too late . Ultimately it’s a numbers game, we must not ever allow what’s happened in Germany(2015) to happen elsewhere or else it’s all over
There should be super severe law for that, if found connected to terrorist cell they should have UK citizenships scraped and sent back to Turkey, never allow them back. With law like this all terrorists to be will think twice.
Those pesky atheists at it again…. Oh wait
Islam is to spread in every country and this is meant to be a good thing….. come on cop on, their way of living not suited for western life sure most of them say it themselves, only one solution if you want to fit in adjust to the country you choose to live in and respect our Christian value and our country, nobody’s saying convert but just remembered your choose to move to Christian Europe, and stop playing the race card when you don’t get your ways….
have your say