Only ministers should decide on contentious legacy inquest process

In an alarming development, civil servants have approved the funding for controversial legacy inquests, having drawn up a plan with the Lord Chief Justice, who has repeatedly, and publicly, called for funding for the inquests.

The inquests cover more than 90 deaths, most of which relate to historic killings by state forces.

A reasonable argument for the hearings is that the deaths were not investigated to a standard fitting to Article Two of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects right to life. Yet it has never been satisfactorily explained why Article Two requires a separate process of inquests. Nor why these need to be mini inquiries, costing £1 million each (some inquests will look at more than one death simultaneously).

The News Letter revealed that 40+ of the dead were terrorists. Indeed a key court ruling last year called for inquests into the IRA mass murderers stopped by the SAS at Loughgall. In a deeply troubling aspect of this saga, the ruling was not appealed and was even cited to justify yesterday’s decision.

Where is the UK government, which is propped up by a unionist party, in all of this? What does it think of yesterday’s decision by civil servants? Its failure to implement direct rule is at the heart of this thoroughly unacceptable saga.

It is now more clear than ever that legacy needs a radical overhaul that will ensure that a proportionate focus is put on terrorists that is so disgracefully lacking.

Politicians like Doug Beattie and Trevor Ringland are rightly criticising the imbalance scandal, as terror supporters gradually get their legacy demands. A DUP statement last night did not criticise this extraordinary development but did refer to the need for balance so presumably it is working behind the scenes with London to help shift focus to terrorists, given that the mooted Historical Investigations Unit, with its big police misconduct element, will not achieve such.