The joint chairmen of the body set up to oversee the early release of paramilitary prisoners in the North have said their work was "emotionally difficult". Sir John Blelloch and Mr Brian Currin said it was impossible for them not to feel for the victims of prisoners, but they were not permitted under the law governing the scheme to take their reactions into account. They were speaking in Belfast yesterday at the publication of a report on the work of the Sentence Review Commission, set up in July 1998 under the Belfast Agreement to adjudicate on the early releases of paramilitary prisoners.
Sir John, a former permanent under secretary at the Northern Ireland Office, said he recognised that the current political climate had raised questions about the future of the early releases. As there had been no changes to the legal framework under which the Sentence Review Commission operates, the commissioners' work would continue, he said.
Of the 558 inmates who applied for early release until last March, 411 had been given dates for early release, according to the report. Some 123 prisoners were turned down on the grounds that they were not eligible and one prisoner's application was refused. A further 23 applications were still being processed at the end of March. The process has cost £869,000.
Of the 411 prisoners whose applications were successful, some 280 have been released, according to figures from the Northern Ireland Office. They include 127 loyalists, 144 republicans and nine non-aligned prisoners. There are 168 paramilitary prisoners still in jail. None of the released prisoners has been recalled. Mr Currin, a South African lawyer who was involved in setting up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, stressed that the 10 commissioners made their decisions "scrupulously, fairly and correctly" and purely on legal grounds. The British government did not try to intervene and they were not influenced by the likely public reaction, he added.
People are still being convicted of offences committed before the qualifying date under the early release legislation of April 10th, 1998. Anyone released and subsequently recalled to prison for a breach of licence conditions would have his or her case reconsidered. While the commission's work has been broadly welcomed by Sinn Fein and the Ulster Democratic Party, a victims' organisation - Families Acting for Innocent Relatives - is critical.
"There is no early release for the victims of these murderers and no commission set up to deal as efficiently with their suffering as those who viciously inflicted it," said the group's spokesman, Mr Brian McConnell last night.
"This commission, by releasing all these terrorists has now justified their futile cause and the barbaric methods they used and we victims are made to feel guilty. Unlike them, our punishment will continue."
There have been two legal reviews of the commission's work including one unsuccessful attempt by the British Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, to prevent the release of three IRA prisoners.