Republican News · Thursday 5 December 2002

Sinn Féin shares Police Ombudsman's reservations

A source close to the Ombudsman's office has told An Phoblacht that if the new draft legislation on policing in the Six Counties is implemented it could badly hamper the Ombudsman's Office in any investigations it may carry out in the future.

According to sources, the Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, has met with the British Secretary of State Paul Murphy several times over the past few weeks to discuss the implications for her investigations if the legislation goes through as it stands.

The draft legislation on policing was published last week.

Although the proposals allow the Police Ombudsman to investigate PSNI policies and practices, the British Secretary of State could stop these inquiries on the grounds of national security if they touch on sensitive personnel matters, if they could put individuals in danger or if they could prejudice future court proceedings.

Sources say they believe O'Loan's groundbreaking investigation into the Omagh Bomb inquiry could not have proceeded under such conditions: "If these proposals are implemented it could have dire consequences for future investigations by the Ombudsman as she will not have access to the information she will require to carry out her investigations thoroughly".

Sinn Féin shares O'Loan's concerns at attempts to further restrict her powers of investigation, and that these proposals go completely against the ethos of Patten.

"This is an extremely negative development designed to allow the PSNI to evade proper scrutiny from her office," said Sinn Féin spokesperson on policing, Gerry Kelly.

"We publicly raised concerns that this sort of legislation could come along before the publication of the Westland Park agreements. Sinn Féin is totally opposed to these new proposals and have already made our concerns known to the British and Irish governments."