Clause 9 - Entitlement to licence
Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill
10:15 am
Sammy Wilson (East Antrim, DUP)
Those who are convicted through the special tribunal—I do not even like the term “convicted”—may be eligible for a licence, and the only result is that they will be given a licence to walk out of the door. Indeed, they may not even be there to walk out of the door; they will simply have the licence to ensure that they never serve a prison sentence. On Second Reading, even some Government Members suggested that a prison sentence should be served, even for a short time.
Almost all the cases in question will be murder cases. The Minister said that this morning. It is immoral that people will be able to escape serving any time in prison, even though in some cases they are guilty of multiple murder. Not only is the provision totally immoral, it is inconsistent with the terms of the Belfast agreement. We did not agree with the early release scheme in the Belfast agreement, but at least under that, people who had committed crimes had to serve, and did serve, a portion of their sentence.