The British government has granted an amnesty to eight former republican prisoners who have been on the run following their escapes from prisons in the North during the Troubles. The men, three of whom were convicted of murder, recently surrendered to the North's Prison Service but they will not now be prosecuted for escaping custody.
Seven were allowed to apply for a release licence to the sentence review commission, which managed the release of paramilitary prisoners under the Belfast Agreement. An IRA man, Liam Averill, who escaped from the Maze in 1997, has been granted a licence. Five IRA men who escaped from the Maze in 1983 and another republican who failed to return after home leave were also released under the scheme.
Gerard Sloan, a member of the IRA gang which killed Capt Herbert Westmacott and escaped from Crumlin Road prison before conviction in 1981, has been freed under the royal prerogative of mercy, granted to other gang members in December.
The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, yesterday stressed that the amnesty was announced by the former Northern secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, last September.
The vice-president of Sinn Fein, Mr Pat Doherty, described the granting of the licences as "a useful step". Mr Patrick Roche of the Northern Ireland Unionist Party said it represented "further appeasement of the IRA".