MPs question legality of letters of assurance given almost 100 ‘on the runs’ including six linked to 1983 Harrods bomb and 1987 Enniskillen massacre

Six IRA fugitives connected to two of the most notorious atrocities of the Northern Ireland Troubles were among those given “get-out-of-jail cards” under a controversial scheme that MPs have described as possibly unlawful.

The six IRA “on the runs” are suspects in the 1983 Harrods bomb that killed six people outside the London department store and the Enniskillen massacre four years later in which 11 people died, the Guardian has learned.

Security sources in Northern Ireland say one of the six, who is wanted for questioning over the 1987 Poppy Day explosion in the County Fermanagh town, is at present living in England.



The six were among almost 100 IRA activists who were given “letters of assurance” from Tony Blair’s government as part of moves to secure Sinn Féin’s support for policing and justice reforms under devolution.

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In a report published on Tuesday, the Northern Ireland affairs select committee said it was questionable whether the scheme was lawful and concluded it had distorted the legal process



The republican party had petitioned the then Labour government to introduce the scheme in order that 95 republicans wanted for almost 300 crimes including murder would no longer fear arrest and conviction if they returned to Northern Ireland or Britain.



Sinn Féin argued that the 95 were strong backers of the peace process and their removal from police wanted lists would bolster support for new policing and justice arrangements within the wider republican community.

The committee’s report into the scheme criticised a number of figures and institutions including the Northern Ireland Office (NIO), the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Tony Blair’s government for the way it was run and their roles in relation to it.

The report stated: “It is questionable whether the “on-the-runs” (OTR) scheme was lawful or not, but we believe its existence distorted the legal process. We accept that there was a difficult peace process going on at the time, but believe that there still has to be transparency and accountability in government and in the legal process.”

It accused both the then government and the NIO of cloaking the scheme in secrecy and discriminating against the rest of Northern Irish society just to placate one party – Sinn Féin.



It also severely criticised the current Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, over her refusal during hearings to the committee to disclose the names of individuals on the scheme who were specifically granted the royal prerogative of mercy. The committee described the secretary of state’s decision not to reveal these names as wholly unacceptable.



The parliamentary committee, which includes a number of unionist and nationalist MPs from Northern Ireland, said the scheme should never have been run the way it was designed.



In the report, the MPs recommend that future governments ensure “that all necessary steps are taken, including, if necessary, introducing legislation to ensure the letters have no legal effect”.



Sir Laurence Robertson QC, the chairman of the committee, said the victims of IRA violence had been let down by the way the government operated the OTR scheme.



“If any scheme had been put in place at all, which is questionable, it should have been properly introduced and correctly administered. It also should have been open and transparent. This scheme was none of those things.



“Regardless of the intentions, this scheme has caused further hurt to people who have suffered far too much already, and has led to further suspicions being raised.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hyde Park, 1982: Dead horses at the scene after an IRA bomb exploded as the Household Cavalry was passing Photograph: PA

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The case against OTR John Downey collapsed in 2014. Photograph: Mark Thomas/REX

The six IRA OTRs currently being investigated are linked to the Harrods and Enniskillen bombs. One security source in Northern Ireland told the Guardian: “These are the two major incidents under investigation in which these individuals are connected to and wanted for questioning. These are new cases and will fully test the legality of the OTR scheme.”



He added that the investigation “might be complicated” by one Enniskillen bomb suspect. The former IRA activist from Northern Ireland disappeared from the province several years ago amid claims that he was about to be exposed as a long-term British agent. He is understood to be living on a state witness protection programme under a new identity in England.



One of the 95 IRA OTRs, John Downey, was arrested and charged in 2013 with the London Hyde Park bombings in 1989 in which four British soldiers were killed. However, the case against the convicted IRA man from County Donegal collapsed after his legal team produced one of the letters of assurance in the Old Bailey revealing the existence of the “comfort letters”.



Commenting on the Downey trial, the report criticised the judge and the prosecution for seeking out witness statements on the nature of the OTR scheme from other parties in the case.



During hearings to the committee earlier this year, Tony Blair told the MPs that “the issue of OTRs was absolutely critical to the peace process and at certain points became fundamental to it ... I think it is likely that the process would have collapsed.”



The state’s pursuit of the six IRA OTRs over the Harrods and Enniskillen massacres will again raise fears of destabilisation within the wider republican community.

Hardline dissident republicans will accuse Sinn Féin of no longer being able to defend the IRA’s “most wanted” activists from future arrests and prosecutions.

