LVF prisoners in the Maze Prison claimed yesterday that their detailed knowledge of events surrounding the murder of their leader, Billy Wright, was a major factor in the Secretary of State excluding them from the scheme for the early release of prisoners.
They said the Northern Ireland Office would not admit this, preferring to cite "a lack of LVF commitment to the ceasefire" as a reason for excluding the loyalist group from the prison releases under the Belfast Agreement.
The prisoners said that because of the detailed information they have, which they said clearly indicated "collusion" by the authorities in the Wright murder, LVF prisoners will not be allowed to benefit from the releases. The prisoners said five of their members on the LVF wing in the Maze witnessed the killing.
Three members of the INLA are in custody in the prison charged with Wright's murder. There have been numerous calls for a public inquiry into the killing. To date the Northern Ireland Office has preferred instead to rely on an internal inquiry to try to establish the facts. Now the LVF prisoners, all of whom are subject to a 23-hour lock-up policy, claim they are "the victims of a vendetta and will never get justice".
A local Protestant minister who officiated at Wright's funeral says he agrees with the prisoners' claim. Pastor Kenny McClinton has repeated the call for "an impartial public inquiry to be set up to establish without doubt the full facts surrounding the murder of Billy Wright in the Maze prison in December 1997."