Northern Ireland leader Peter Robinson called on authorities on Wednesday not to prosecute soldiers named in a report on Bloody Sunday, urging the troubled province to “close the book” on the episode.
His comments came a day after the publication of the long-awaited Saville report into one of the province’s darkest chapters, in which 13 people were shot dead by British soldiers at a march in Londonderry in 1972.
“I have to say that I do not believe there’s anything to be gained by prosecutions at this stage,” said Robinson, the province’s first minister. “We have finished this chapter. We should close the book and we should move on as a society and get the healing within our community that is so much needed.”
After the report’s publication, Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service said it was considering whether to prosecute anyone in relation to the shootings, but gave no date for when a decision would be taken.
Opinion has been sharply divided over whether to bring charges following the report’s publication, which concluded that none of the victims were armed and soldiers gave no warnings before opening fire.
While some relatives have called for the soldiers to be hauled before the courts, other commentators have argued doing so would be unfair and even undermine hard-won peace and stability in Northern Ireland.
John Kelly, whose brother Michael was shot dead on Bloody Sunday, said he thought there was now a “big possibility” soldiers could be charged with murder or at least perjury after the report found many had lied to the inquiry.
“My young brother was murdered on Bloody Sunday and Soldier F murdered him and was responsible for three other deaths that day. He was killing at will and got away with it,” Kelly said.
He was referring to a soldier, identified only by his rank and an initial in the report, who shot his brother and several others and who Kelly describes as a “serial killer.”
“Serial killers are prosecuted and serial killers go to jail and as far as I’m concerned, that’s where soldier F should go, to jail,” he said.
A lawyer who represented troops at the 12-year Bloody Sunday inquiry insisted, however, that the findings did not open the door for prosecutions and accused top judge Mark Saville, who led it, of having “cherry picked” evidence.
“I think Lord Saville felt under very considerable pressure after 12 years and £191 million [US$283 million] to give a report which gave very clear findings even where in truth the evidence didn’t support them,” Stephen Pollard said. “What he has had to do is adopt the pieces of evidence that fit the theory and abandon those that don’t.”
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