The two Scots Guards serving life sentences for the murder of Peter McBride (18) will be released at the end of this month, sources said last night.
The Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, has been carrying out a review of the cases of James Fisher (29) and Mark Wright (24), who were sentenced to life for shooting Mr McBride in 1992, and she is expected to make an announcement on their future in the next two weeks. However, it is understood that she has already given assurances to party colleagues that both men will be released at the end of August. The movement on the two soldiers comes after the release of Mr Thomas McMahon, the man convicted of the murder of Lord Mountbatten and others in 1979. The Conservative Party has urged Dr Mowlam on many occasions to release Fisher and Wright, pointing out that they remain in prison while loyalist and republican prisoners benefit from the accelerated release scheme under the terms of the Belfast Agreement. For their part, both men have consistently proclaimed their innocence, insisting that Mr McBride was running away from an army patrol in the New Lodge area of Belfast carrying a coffeejar bomb when he was shot in the back.
Speculation that the soldiers would benefit from an early release mounted yesterday after a report in the Mirror suggested their release would be announced within the next few weeks. A Northern Ireland Office spokeswoman said Dr Mowlam's position remained that a decision on the men's future would be made at the end of August. A Scottish National Party MP, Mr Andrew Welsh, who has supported the campaign for the soldiers' release, said Dr Mowlam had told him recently that she would announce her decision before the release of a further 250 paramilitary prisoners in early September.