The British government announced it had filed an appeal following a verdict against its amnesty statute for ex-soldiers and militants involved in Northern Ireland’s decades-long conflict.
A judge found in February that Britain’s Legacy Act, which granted conditional amnesty to ex-soldiers and militants involved in three decades of brutal conflict in Northern Ireland, violated human rights.
Britain said it had filed an appeal with the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal, reiterating its commitment to carrying out the plan and following its directions at the time of the verdict.
Report says the contentious law sparked more than 20 legal challenges in Northern Ireland, mostly from victims’ families, who said it contravened the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and a 1998 peace deal.
Meanwhile, Belfast’s High Court ruled in their favour. The judge ruled that a portion of a new law passed last year that provided immunity from prosecution to those who fully cooperated with a new investigating agency should be repealed.
Victims’ families, human rights organisations, and all major political parties in Northern Ireland, including British unionists and Irish nationalists, reject the statute.
According to reports, the Irish government is filing a second legal action against Britain at the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the British decision violates its commitments under the European Convention.
