Jamie Bryson reports SDLP leader Colum Eastwood to parliamentary standards watchdog
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has been reported to Parliament’s standards watchdog by loyalist activist Jamie Bryson.
This comes after police sought to interview the SDLP leader under caution for walking with the Bloody Sunday families to Bishop’s Street courthouse on 25 August for a hearing in relation to the prosecution of Soldier F.
Eastwood walked out of Derry's Strand Road police station ahead of an interview under caution last month.
The interview was in relation to an ongoing investigation surrounding a complaint made by Mr Bryson in relation to the event on August 25.
The issue is whether the walk fell under legislation in Northern Ireland that requires organisers of public processions to notify the Parades Commission.
It is an offence to organise or participate in an unnotified parade.
The Foyle MP has said he will not engage with further investigations relating the matter.
Bryson has accused Eastwood of seeking to “place himself above the law”.
Mr Eastwood said he had attended the station in December to inform officers that no Bloody Sunday families would be taking part in the investigation.
He said he waited for 20 minutes but had not been interviewed and branded the situation a “total and utter farce”.
At the time, the SDLP leader said if the police wanted to arrest him, they knew his address.
Bryson has confirmed he has lodged a complaint with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg.
He said: “Mr Eastwood has sought to place himself above the law, and it could be argued has interfered to an impermissible level in an ongoing criminal investigation, in which he is himself a self-identified suspect.
“Parading law has been rigorously applied to the unionist and loyalist community; indeed I was held in prison in 2013 for precisely the same offence as that alleged against Mr Eastwood.
“Therefore, equality under the law requires that the same rigour is applied to all citizens.
“There is no exemption in the law for those who self-perceive themselves as having a legitimate cause, the only exemptions are funerals and the Salvation Army, neither of which avails Mr Eastwood.
“His case appears to be that because the cause for which he marched was legitimate, that the law ought not to apply to him and his fellow marchers. That is a bizarre proposition.”
Mr Bryson added: “This is not, and has never been, about the Bloody Sunday families who are entitled to pursue what they see as justice through the prism of their view of contentious legacy matters.
“The criminal complaint is about the equal application of the law.”
Bryson said he believed the SDLP leader was in breach of the House of Commons code of conduct.
Eastwood responded: “I’ve been clear that there is nothing that will ever stop me from standing with the Bloody Sunday families in their campaign for justice.
“These are people who had their loved ones murdered, their names blackened and justice denied for more than 50 years.
“They have, and will always have, my full support.”
Mr Eastwood said he was not surprised by the complaint, adding “everybody can see this for what it is”.
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