Possibility of prosecution for SAS soldiers who killed IRA team 'shows two-tier justice in action'

​The legacy act, passed by the former Tory government, barred prosecutions for Troubles-era offences.

But the conditional immunity that act promised has since been ruled unlawful by the courts, and plans have been announced by the Labour government to repeal this and other key parts of the act.

Mr Johnstone was speaking to the News Letter in the wake of an inquest into the deaths of the four men concluded on Thursday, with a coroner ruling that shooting them had not been “justified”.

The four dead men were Kevin Barry O’Donnell, 21, Sean O’Farrell, 23, Peter Clancy, 19, and Daniel Vincent, 20.

They were making their getaway after staging an attack on Coalisland RUC station using a heavy machine gun mounted on a lorry when soldiers from the SAS surprised them in a church car park in Clonoe, east Tyrone.

In statements made by the soldiers at the time, they claimed that the use of lethal force was justified to protect their lives and others from the IRA unit.

However, Mr Justice Humphreys said the use of force by the soldiers was “not reasonable”.

The ruling raises the possibility that criminal cases may be mounted against the soldiers involved in the future.

Mr Johnstone, a former Army reservist with the rank of major, said of the possibility of prosecutions: “I'm not surprised at all.

“One of the key messages I get from veterans as I engage with veterans on the issue of legacy is that while the so-called armed struggle has ended (and obviously we're thankful for that – we're not not losing life on the streets of Northern Ireland), what many veterans say to me is that the republican movement have simply moved to another phase of their so-called war.

“Not only is it around rewriting history, but they have a very clear strategy of trying to put as many veterans as possible in the dock, and the route to doing that is to start with these inquests.”

He said he has “absolutely no doubt there'll be an attempt to go down the prosecution route” now.

The prosecution of soldiers is “deeply worrying for the veteran community in Northern Ireland”.

He said that “I don't want to use the term 'there are two tiers of justice', but that's exactly what is playing out in this country now”.

Whilst “where any security force member has broken the law, they should be held accountable,” Mr Johnstone said.

“Where is the focus on the 90%-plus of murders by terrorists?

“Where is the legal will to actually bring some degree of justice and accountability to those who have perpetrated the most heinous deeds in this country?”

Mr Johnstone, who served a tour of Iraq with the Royal Irish Regiment in 2004, left the forces in about 2014.

He took over as NI veterans’ commissioner after the former post-holder, ex-UUP MP and fellow soldier Danny Kinahan, quit last September after four years.