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Former Northern Ireland secretary 'backed' paramilitary amnesties

Credit: PA Wire

Former Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid supported a selective and reversible government amnesty scheme for alleged paramilitaries but excluding members of the security forces, a newly-published document revealed.

His May 2001 letter to Tony Blair said distinguishing between deserving and undeserving terrorism suspects would be difficult since all were innocent in the eyes of the law.

He also envisaged having to use special legislation to override resistance to an amnesty law in the House of Lords.

The Labour government had already accepted publicly that discontinuing prosecutions for offences committed before the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement by supporters of organisations on ceasefire would be a "natural development", the note to the Prime Minister said.

The Good Friday Agreement meant anyone convicted of paramilitary crimes was eligible for early release.

However, this did not cover those suspected of such crimes, nor did it include people who had been charged or convicted but who had escaped from prison.