Belfast Attorney Critiques the Northern Ireland “ Stormont House Agreement.”

Posted By: October 09, 2015

Belfast Attorney Critiques the Northern Ireland 
“ Stormont House Agreement.”

CAPITOL HILL. Friday, October 9, 2015— As the Irish National Caucus continues to brief the US Congress on growing concerns about the Stormont House Agreement — the  proposed Bill for  dealing with the legacy of The Troubles — a Belfast attorney has submitted her critique to the Irish National Caucus.

Belfast attorney, Padraigin Drinan has long been involved in  helping the victims  of British  Government collusion ,  State- sponsored  murder, assassinations and cover-ups.

She has forwarded to Fr. Sean Mc Manus— President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus— this  assessment : 
“Although the proposed Stormont House Agreement (SHA) refers to “limited immunity,” it is in fact amnesty.
They say it is not an amnesty because if the Historical Investigative Unit (HIU) gets evidence from elsewhere (apart from people’s own admission/confession )they can still recommend prosecution.
However, they have given the HIU only the powers of the police ombudsman and we know how weak those were. David Ford, Northern Ireland Justice Minister, said that he expected only a couple of prosecutions in the unsolved cases.
Leaving National Security aside, the proposed investigative scheme is not compliant with Article 2 of the European Convention, under which the British Government is mandated to investigate killings during The Trouble—including State murders or collusion in such killings.
  David Ford did not disagree when I said that if the Stormont House Agreement were passed, the European Court could find it wanting— and then we could be almost another decade without justice.
With the scheme as proposed there is no satisfaction for the victims —only relief for the perpetrators whose article 2 rights are protected.
Furthermore, the HIU officers may include former and present members of the PSNI (present members seconded) and British military personnel seconded.This would render it not Article 2- compliant and causes alarm amongst the victims.”

Fr. Mc Manus said : “ This has to be of deep concern to all who support the families of victims of The Troubles in Northern  Ireland. The Irish National Caucus is not trying to chart the  course on this.That is up to the Northern Ireland Assembly. Our role is to alert the US Congress on the reasonable concerns of the families of the victims, both Protestant and Catholic. The issues raised by Ms. Drinan can hardly be ignored by any reasonable person.
We welcome the views of all in Northern Ireland and we will continue to raise their concerns with the US Congress.”