N. Ireland leader threatens to quit after IRA bomb trial collapse

By -
Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson threatened to resign Wednesday unless there is a judicial inquiry review into the collapse of the trial of a man suspected of carrying out a 1982 IRA bomb in London.
Robinson said the British government had kept him in the dark on the issue of secret amnesty letters given to fugitive suspects -- the issue that caused the high profile Hyde Park bombing trial to be aborted.
A judge on Tuesday ruled that John Downey, 62, should not be prosecuted for the attack after it emerged he had received an official letter in 2007 assuring him he would not face prosecution if he re-entered the United Kingdom.
The letters were part of the 1998 Good Friday agreement that ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
Downey was charged with killing four cavalry soldiers in the Hyde Park bombing by the Irish Republican Army. He was arrested last May at London Gatwick Airport while en route to Greece.
A visibly furious Robinson, who has headed Northern Ireland's devolved administration since 2008, said he was "incandescent with rage" that he did not know about the letters.
"I am not prepared to be the first minister of a government that is kept in the dark" by London on matters relating to Northern Ireland, he told BBC television. I want a full judicial inquiry into all of these matters so that we can see who knew, when they knew, what they knew. I want all of the letters rescinded," he added.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said in parliament it was "absolutely shocking" that a "despicable mistake" meant Downey would not face trial.
The government's chief legal adviser, Dominic Grieve, England's attorney general, told parliament Downey should never have received the letter he did.
Such letters of assurance have been sent out to 187 so-called "on-the-runs", living outside British jurisdictions, who sought clarification on their status following the 1998 Northern Irish peace accords between its broadly Protestant British and Catholic Irish communities.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UBTH @50: Obaseki hails institution’s role in strengthening Edo healthcare

By -
Image
(Nigeria) Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, has commended the staff and management of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, for their unwavering commitment, dedication, and hard work in providing high-quality healthcare services to the people of Edo State and Nigeria in the past fifty years. Obaseki, at a dinner organized in honour of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors of Nigeria, at the Government House, Benin City, reassured the government’s continuous partnership and collaboration with the federal government-owned health institution to strengthen the health system and ensure quality health delivery to Edo people. The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Philip Shaibu, reeled out the gains of the government’s reforms in the health sector, commending the medical centre for bolstering the government’s efforts at transforming Edo State into a health hub. He said, "We came into a wilderness where you have to cut a part for yourself and fix it. We held
Read more

NBC has no powers to impose fine on broadcast stations --Court

By -
Image
(Nigeria) The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has been restrained by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, from imposing fines on broadcast stations in the country. Trial judge in the matter, Justice James Omotosho also set aside the N500,000 fines imposed on March 1, 2019, on each of 45 broadcast stations. The court made the orders in its judgment a suit by the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda, MRA, which had sued the NBC. Justice Omotosho held that the NBC, not being a court of law, had no power to impose sanctions as punishment on broadcast stations. The court further held that the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, which gives the commission the power to impose sanction, is in conflict with Section 6 of the Constitution that vested judicial power in the court of law. He said the court would not sit idle and watch a body imposing fine arbitrarily without recourse to the law. He said that the commission did not comply with the law when it sat as a complainant and at
Read more