Listen to the full three episodes of SAS: The Shadow War here, or become an Independent Member for exclusive access to all eight episodes. UK veterans who served in The Troubles will be protected from prosecution under new government plans to amend its own controversial legislation , the Northern Ireland secretary has insisted. Sir Chris Bryant, who has been in post four months, said measures being brought to parliament on Monday would quell fears of former armed forces members that they could be taken to court decades after the conflict ended in what has been dubbed “lawfare”.
Speaking to The Independent, the cabinet minister said a “big package of amendments” would answer “ every one of the key questions that people have asked us for”. “We’re trying to make sure it is a fair process for everybody,” he added. The secretary of state’s intervention comes after veterans groups, including 15 former SAS and intelligence operators, spoke out in The Independent’s new podcast SAS: The Shadow War .
Sir Chris insisted that soldiers would not be treated in the same way as militants, vowing: “What we are going to say in the bill is that there is no equivalence between the lawful action of brave British security forces and the deliberate acts of terrorists.” More than 300,000 armed forces served under Operation Banner, the three decade UK military deployment running in Northern Ireland from the 1970s to the 90s. In 2023, the Conservatives introduced the Legacy Act which gave immunity from prosecution to armed forces veterans and former paramilitary members who made a full disclosure to the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICIR). It also prevents the use of evidence given to the ICIR from being used in civil cases.
Chris Bryant changes to the bill will protect veterans from faces action decades after the conflict (Sam Kiley/The Independent) Labour ’s new Northern Ireland Troubles Bill removes both protections for former British soldiers – notably members of the special forces – but also regular forces involved in operational killings during the conflict. But Sir Chris said amendments to that bill would prevent what veterans have called "rinse and repeat” efforts by the families of men killed in combat by British troops to reuse the courts to prosecute veterans. “I don't want people to have to undergo processes time and time and time again,” he said.
“And that's why one of the things that's really important in the law that we're bringing forward is that it says, categorically, that the Legacy Commission cannot repeat a process... that has been undergone elsewhere.” He explained that previous court rulings and coroner’s findings would be seen as the last word unless there was compelling new evidence to re-open cases. In SAS: The Shadow War , soldiers have revealed the split second decisions they faced when confronting armed paramilitaries on pre-planned operations in some of the most secret operations in the past 50 years. Sir Chris said that the context of any conflict would now have to be taken into account to ensure that veterans did not face legal jeopardy.
Three IRA paramilitaries were killed in an SAS operation on Coagh, Co Tyrone in 1991 (ITN) “One of the changes that we're making to this law is, number one, it will say, you have to bear in mind the operational context in which somebody was functioning,” he said. David, not his real name to protect his identity, was the commander of an SAS unit which killed three IRA paramilitaries on Coagh, Co Tyrone in 1991 when they were attempting to murder an off duty member of the security services. He said he hoped Monday would deliver the protections that his men need from dealing with more judicial inquiries and court cases.
“One the the face of it sounds OK but the devil will be in the detail,” he said. “And the fact that the government won’t share the details of the amendments means that we will have to wait until Monday, and analysis by our legal experts, to find out. “Hasty law is almost always bad law and we urge the government to take its time to get it right rather than rush to get it wrong.” Sir Chris said in rare instances new evidence revealed by modern forensic evidence could lead to a reopening of cases, but could only be conducted through the Ministry of Defence which would “set a very high bar”.
He said the aim of the new legislation was to find answers for people on all sides who lost someone in the conflict. British troops of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders with armoured cars in the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland on routine patrol in 1973 (PA) He said many of the cases raised by the families of people killed during the Northern Ireland conflict were victims of “terrorism”, including about 26 per cent who were the families of armed forces personnel and 17 per cent who were police, who were killed. “There was one chap I met recently, and he was saying that he lives in Northern Ireland.
And every time he goes to Marks & Spencer in Northern Ireland, he sees the person he knows killed his father. “But that has never been acknowledged anywhere. It hasn't even been acknowledged that his father was murdered, because there's never been a process to get to any of those kind of facts.
“So that's the kind of thing that this, that our legislation will do, get answers for families.” Listen to the first three instalments of SAS: The Shadow War now, or become an Independent Member for exclusive access to all eight episodes. Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Source: The Independent
