Judgment due in Troubles Legacy Act appeal case

Fri, 20 Sep, 2024 - 06:31

By David Young, PA

Judgment will be delivered later in a legal appeal challenging the independence of a new body established to reinvestigate Troubles murders.

The appeal was mounted by several bereaved victims after a Belfast High Court judge ruled that the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) was both independent and capable of conducting human rights-compliant investigations.

The High Court in Belfast backed the independence of the commission in a judicial review case taken against the last UK government’s contentious legacy laws.

Martina Dillon, whose husband Seamus Dillon was murdered in 1997, took the lead case in the appeal (Liam McBurney/PA)

Another appeal against a different element of the same February judgment – mounted by the Government – seeks to clarify the legal implications of a commitment contained within the post-Brexit Windsor Framework.

The framework commits to protect the human rights entitlements provided for in the Good Friday peace agreement.

The High Court found that the Legacy Act breached that commitment.

The ICRIR was set up in May under the Legacy Act.

Many families who lost loved ones during the conflict claim the commission lacks the teeth and independence to properly re-examine their cases.

One of the most controversial provisions of the Act was the offer of a form of conditional immunity to perpetrators of Troubles crimes who agreed to co-operate with the new truth recovery commission.

The UK Labour government has already committed to repeal the immunity provision and also the Act’s ban on civil cases and inquests related to Troubles incidents.

It has, however, pledged to retain the ICRIR.

In justifying the retention of the commission, the British government has cited February’s High Court judgment by Mr Justice Colton.

The Court of Appeal in Belfast heard the challenge against the judgment over five days in June.

The lead case among several victims taking the appeal was Martina Dillon, whose husband Seamus was shot dead by loyalists in Dungannon in 1997.

While Mr Justice Colton ruled that the commission was capable of independent investigations, he also declared several other elements of the Legacy Act incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Those elements included the offer of conditional immunity and the discontinuation of civil cases and inquests.

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn continued with the challenge to seek clarity on how the Windsor Framework will affect future Government legislation (Niall Carson/PA)

The Conservative government mounted an appeal against that aspect of the ruling, but the Labour government subsequently dropped that argument.

Mr Justice Colton also found that the Legacy Act breached elements of the UK and EU’s post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland – the Windsor Framework.

Article 2 (1) of the framework states that the Government must ensure that various rights entitlements in Northern Ireland, which were enshrined following the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, cannot be diminished as a result of the UK leaving the EU.

The last government also appealed against the High Court judgment in relation to the finding on the Windsor Framework.

Labour decided to continue with that challenge.

Northern Secretary Hilary Benn said the appeal on that ground would bring clarity in relation to how the framework could potentially affect other UK government legislation in the future.