ON THE RUN TERRORISTS

The subject of ‘on the run terrorists’ has been brought back into the spotlight by the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service to abandon their request for the extradition of Neesan Quinlivan, Pearse McAuley, Andrew Martin and Anthony Duncan - IRA members who have managed to evade British justice for many years either because they have been serving prison sentences in the Republic of Ireland or they have managed to stay away from the United Kingdom for some time beggars belief. Regardless of whatever suggestions may be made by Gerry Adams MP or the British Government, I, as a Unionist, can clearly see a deal has been struck in some murky corridor. When people break out of jail one would expect the authorities to make every effort to apprehend the escapee. When one also adds the decision not to continue to seek the extradition of Larry Zaitschek a jig saw starts to come together. Jeffrey Donaldson in a rather clumsy move attempts to place the blame for this situation at the feet of the Ulster Unionist Party by suggesting these moves some eleven years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement are ’tied in to the Agreement’. Personally I can see this as part of the Sinn Fein shopping list to ensure the smooth devolution of Policing and Justice - clearly the Irish Government must be commended for ensuring that those that murdered Garda McCabe served their sentence - BUT these thugs owe a debt now to British Justice and any faith in British justice is lessened by the failure of HM Government to ensure that their debt to society is not repaid. The Colombia Three managed to escape Scot free from any charges even in relation to the use of false passports, these five have escaped by some technical legal wriggling - how many more criminals will escape justice. Will the Historical Enquiries Team now be asked to leave all Republicans alone? I wonder how effective a Northern Ireland Justice Minister - under the thumb of a joint DUP/SF alliance - can be when we see the political influence one can exert on justice in Northern Ireland, Perhaps these actions have been taken as a precursor to the appointment of a NI Justice Minister to ensure that the decision on future actions against wanted terrorists particularly from the Republican tradition has already had a legal precedent set by The Crown Prosecution Service.