Northern Ireland's conflict era prosecutions under the spotlight
(Vatican Radio) Northern Ireland's attorney general has said there should be an end
to prosecutions for all deaths caused by paramilitaries, police or the Army during
the period of the conflict there. John Larkin said there should be no further police
investigations, inquests or inquiries into any relevant killings that took place before
the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. But he added, the proposal was
not a formal amnesty. Lydia O’Kane spoke to Robin Wilson, Belfast based Lead Editor
of online publication Open Security about the Attorney General comments. He says,
“there’s an obvious legal principal which is at stake here which is non- discrimination
and it’s difficult to see how one can say to a victim of a politically motivated assault
before 1998 that they should be entitled to a lesser justice than someone who was
the victim of a common assault before 1998” Over the 30 years of Northern Ireland’s
trouble over 3,500 people were killed.