Terrorists who refuse to cooperate with authorities could still face prosecution for atrocities committed during the Troubles under new legislation designed to protect British troops, The Telegraph understands.
A new Legacy Bill has faced fierce opposition over claims military veterans were being unfairly treated – despite a demand for legislation to protect them from criminal investigation.
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, had hoped to push through his Legacy Bill last autumn, but its progress has been stalled by objections from victims of terrorism as well as veterans’ groups.
Now Mr Lewis is considering strengthening powers in the Bill to force terror suspects to participate in hearings into hundreds of unsolved murders during the Troubles.
The Legacy Bill, promised in the Conservative manifesto, would impose a statute of limitations, ending all criminal prosecutions for offences committed during the Troubles up until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Investigations without a police inquiry
In place of criminal investigations, the Government would set up a new independent body – based on the truth and reconciliation committee set up in post-apartheid South Africa – that would investigate deaths without a police inquiry.
But opponents complained that ex-soldiers, many in their 70s and 80s, would be compelled to testify, while paramilitaries would simply not attend. That threatened to derail the process, leaving it lopsided with former soldiers forced to give testimony and terror suspects refusing to take part.
Now Mr Lewis is understood to favour a change to planned legislation that would allow police and prosecutors to continue with criminal inquiries if individuals fail to participate in the reconciliation hearings.
Previously, he had considered a series of fines for anybody refusing to attend, but opponents have called for a stronger incentive.
A source close to Mr Lewis said: “Since the command paper was published last year we have been looking at ways to improve what we put forward to make sure we have better outcomes for victims and veterans. The Northern Ireland Office has been exploring better ways to do that.”
The source stressed no firm decision has been made, but added: “One option is to continue the threat of prosecution for those who do not cooperate. It is something Brandon has been looking at for some time.”
Honouring a manifesto pledge
Johnny Mercer, the former defence minister who quit the Government over the continued prosecutions of British troops in Northern Ireland, has recently met with Mr lewis and said on social media that he was “tentatively confident” that Boris Johnson’s manifesto pledge might finally be honoured.
He told the Telegraph: “I am convinced that if Brandon Lewis reflects carefully on the feedback from his command paper, there is a space to land a policy that finally honours our manifesto claims to veterans and is the best outcome from the families of victims too.”
Mr Lewis had faced calls to resign over his failure to introduce legislation.
The problem, in part, is that the Ministry of Defence maintained detailed files on all shootings involving soldiers during the Troubles and these would form the basis for investigations by the new truth and reconciliation body. But since terrorist groups in the Province kept no records, there are doubts that paramilitiares can be as easily held to account.
Ongoing criminal investigations of veterans have caused outrage. Two soldiers were prosecuted in a criminal court in Belfast over the death of an IRA commander in 1972 although the case collapsed after just days, while Dennis Hutchings died from Covid, at the age of 80, part way through a trial over a fatal shooting in 1974.
