Donegal fisherman John Downey had murder charges against him dropped over receiving OTR letter
THE Sinn Fein boss who dealt with the issue of on-the-run republicans has today slammed a report by British MPs as “political manipulation”.
Gerry Kelly said the parties on the House of Commons committee who drafted the report were “political opponents” of Sinn Fein and he expected nothing less from them.
And he denied the so-called ‘administrative scheme’ dealing with on-the-run suspects was a “secret”, saying his political adversaries knew about it as far back as 2001.
Today’s report by a cross-party group of British MPs was compiled after Donegal fisherman John Downey had murder charges against him thrown out at the Old Bailey in London in February 2014.
The case collapsed after it emerged Mr Downey – a senior Sinn Fein figure in Donegal – had received a comfort letter from the British Government saying he was not wanted by any police force.
However, it later emerged that he was wanted by Scotland Yard over the 1982 Hyde Park bombings.
A subsequent report by Lady Hallett said the scheme was not a secret and was not unlawful.
Gerry Kelly said he is not surprised by the findings of the British MPs.
He stressed that he put more trust in Lady Hallett’s previous report on the matter.
Mr Kelly said: “As far as I was concerned this was a political manipulation of an issue as opposed to Lady Hallett who came in and investigated the issue.
“At no time was this issue a secret. People knew all about this as far back as 2001.”
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