Bid to axe Troubles amnesty bill via courts: Northern Ireland Office faces deadline of today

The challenge is being brought by the Belfast law firm Harte Coyle Collins on behalf of the families of two people who were shot dead.

They are Patricia Burns and Daniel McCready – the former being a daughter of Catholic civilian Thomas Burns (shot by the Army in 1972 aged 35) and the latter a nephew of James McCann, one of the ‘New Lodge Six’.

Listed by Ulster University’s CAIN archive as a member of the IRA, Mr McCann was 18 when he was killed in 1973.

His killer is given by CAIN as “non-specific loyalist group”, though it has also been said that he was shot by the British Army.

The firm attempted to launch a judicial review of the planned bill via the High Court in Belfast, then the Court of Appeal – but since the bill had not been published at the time of these requests (merely an outline of what it would contain) judges declined to grant one.

Now, in the wake of the bill being made public last month, the firm is taking its battle to the Supreme Court in London.

It said in a statement: “The bill has moved through Parliament at extraordinary speed with the next debate and third reading before the House of Commons scheduled for next Monday, July 4.

“Victims, NGOs, and the majority of political parties in Northern Ireland rejected the bill in Northern Ireland after the introduction in May.

“The applicants in the Supreme Court challenge, Ms Burns and Mr McCready, are extremely concerned not only with the content of bill but also by the speed of the parliamentary journey.

“Ms Burns and Mr McCready are asking the Supreme Court in London to take the unusual step of providing an advisory judgement on the constitutionality and lawfulness of the amnesty proposals in domestic and international law before the bill is enacted.

“The applicants both seek declarations from the London court that the purpose of the legacy proposals is unconstitutional, unlawful, in contravention of the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol and the British government’s international obligations under Articles Two and Three of the European Convention of Human Rights.”

The firm said that the NIO is meant to have lodged a response to this with the court by a deadline of today.

A Northern Ireland Office spokesperson said: “It would not be appropriate to comment in relation to ongoing legal proceedings.”

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