'There can be no two-tier policing - we must go after all terror support equally' says Troubles victims campaigner
Troubles campaigner Kenny Donaldson has insisted that there must be not “two-tier” system when it comes to policing the glorification of present-day terror and past terror.
The director of the South East Fermanagh Foundation said that to do otherwise is “unsustainable”.
He was reacting to a recent court case in which a man was prosecuted for posts on a pro-dissident Facebook page.
Ciaran Kilifin, 27, with an address at Exchange Court in Newtownards, was given a suspended sentence for four posts on a page called Republican Activist Coalition.
The PSNI said afterwards that the case was a “landmark” one because it is the first time in Northern Ireland that a particular part of the Terrorism Act has been used to prosecute someone.
The act has existed since 2000, but it was expanded in 2019 to include a new clause making it illegal to publish a statement which is “reckless” as to whether someone reading it “will be encouraged to support a proscribed organisation”.
The PSNI urged anyone posting online to “take note of the newly-introduced recklessness aspect of this offence”.
The DUP and TUV both reacted to the news by wondering if the case will now mean other prosecutions will follow suit for people who are “reckless” about glorifying non-dissident groups like the Provisional IRA.
Now Mr Donaldson has added his voice too, saying: "The prosecution of a 'dissident' republican for these offences means that those alleged of supporting other proscribed terrorist organisations including PIRA, INLA, UVF, UDA/UFF etc should also face prosecution.
"There cannot be a different approach taken. No two-tier system of pre and post-Belfast Agreement terrorist organisations can operate. All such organisations continue to exist, and criminal activities have continued post-1998.
"There cannot be a timeline given on the expression of support for terrorism – whether an organisation is deemed currently active or is in dormant mode, or indeed is said to have disbanded. It is the act of justifying violence which is a crime and must be treated as such.
"It is unsustainable for a different approach to be taken on these issues, wrong is wrong and right is right.
"We call for a consistent position and approach to be taken in the dealing of these matters.”