IRELAND: CULTURE OF IMMUNITY

NOVANEWS

Derry human rights group uncover ‘culture of immunity’
Derry Journal 14/09/10
See also at http://www.troopsoutmovement.com/latestnews.htm

A Derry based human rights group believes it has uncovered evidence of a “culture of immunity” to protect British soldiers from prosecution in the early 1970s. The Pat Finucane Centre has found a document as part of its probe into the investigation of the shooting of Billy McGreanery in Derry in 1971. The document, says the group, shows a “systematic attitude that saw British soldiers on duty as being above the law.”

Earlier this year, the Historical Enquiries Team revealed that the top RUC man in Derry at the time of the shooting, Superintendent Frank Lagan, had recommended a prosecution of the soldier who had shot Mr. McGreanery at the top of Westland Street.

The new document uncovered by the Pat Finucane Centre, dated December 6 of the same year, records a meeting between a senior official linked to the British Army Headquarters here and the Attorney General, Sir. Basil Kelly. The document states that Sir Basil felt there was no need for a charge in the McGreanery case and the senior official had “no doubt that the Attorney General is doing all in his power to protect the security forces against criminal proceedings in respect of actions on duty.”

According to the document, the official was also satisified that the Attorney General did not need to be reminded of “the danger to morale inherent in prosecutions of soldiers or policemen.”

Paul O’Connor, of the Pat Finucane Centre, says: “These documents show clearly that, rather than have an impartial Attorney General looking at the merits of each case in the North in 1971, there was a culture of immunity for British soldiers created and sustained up to the highest legal office in the state at the time. The message being sent out loud and clear was that soldiers would not be prosecuted regardless of the circumstances if the actions they were being accused of were carried out while they were on duty.”

Mr O’Connor adds: “It is hard to envisage just how differently the course of events here would have been if had been made clear from the start that soldiers would be prosecuted if they shot innocent people. Perhaps if that had been the case in 1971, we would never have had Bloody Sunday and all that flowed from that.”

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