Troubles prosecution ban set for imminent introduction, says Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin has said the UK government has given its "clearest signal yet" that it will introduce laws to ban all Troubles-related prosecutions.

The main Stormont parties and UK and Irish governments discussed Troubles legacy issues on Tuesday.

In July the government said it wanted to legislate to end Troubles-era investigations, prosecutions, inquests and civil actions.

That has been rejected by all Northern Ireland parties and victims' groups.

Under the UK government's plan, a statute of limitations would cover crimes committed during the Troubles up to April 1998 and would apply to military veterans as well as ex-paramilitaries.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the idea would allow Northern Ireland to "draw a line under the Troubles".

Declan Kearney says it is "bogus" for the UK government to claim its plan will build reconciliation

But after Tuesday's virtual call on the issue, Sinn Féin MLA Declan Kearney said the plan was "the antithesis of reconciliation".

He said: "We believe that the British government intends to move imminently and in an entirely dismissive way towards all of those at the meeting and in a profoundly discourteous way towards all of the victims and survivors in this society.

"[Northern Ireland Secretary] Brandon Lewis simply said that they would give us a call before they actually brought the legislation forward in Westminster."

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Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is urging the UK government to take a "truly victim-focused" approach

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said victims of the Troubles should be put at the "front and centre" of any process for dealing with the past.

But he pointed out that that the government's plan was "overwhelmingly opposed" by victims.

He also said that although the Irish government claimed to oppose the UK government's plan, its "evasion of action in relation to legacy cases in their jurisdiction or where murders were carried out from their territory means that victims are denied access to justice".

"We need to see specific proposals from [the Irish government] on how they will deal with legacy cases and offer the prospect of justice to victims."