UNIONISTS have rejected the suggestion by the Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson that an amnesty for some Troubles crimes should be considered.
Mr Hutchinson said on Sunday that “as part of a larger process, [an] amnesty is one of the issues that needs to be reflected on and discussed — not a general amnesty, but a conditional amnesty, to move the agenda forward”.
Yesterday, the DUP’s Gregory Campbell told BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show that an amnesty “would be a wrong step” because most victims “want some form of justice”.
The MP said: “For many of those people they still feel the loss, many of them are embittered by it but many have said: It’s a past part of my life that I’ll never, ever forget but I have moved on. Others can’t move on. So it’s very difficult to produce a policy... that will deal with all those relatives.”
TUV leader Jim Allister dismissed the suggested amnesty as “preposterous”.
He said: “On top of the devastation of early releases and the official thwarting of the pursuit of justice by exempting decommissioned weapons from forensic examination, this would be an unbearable imposition on innocent victims and yet another victory and reward for those who made them victims.
“Amnesty is a one-sided reward for murder and must not be contemplated.”