UK drops all charges against 15 Army veterans from 1972 'Bloody Sunday' Massacre

Prosecutors in Northern Ireland on Tuesday, September 29 stated that no more British army veterans will be charged over the January 30, 1972 “Bloody Sunday” killings of 13 civil rights protesters. Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service has decided not to prosecute 15 soldiers. ‘Bloody Sunday’ was one of the deadliest days in Northern Ireland’s decades of violence, on that day British paratroopers opened fire on protesters in a city called Derry resulting in 13 deaths and 15 injuries.

Insufficient evidence to charge to other soldiers

As per reports, on British soldier was charged last year in the killing of two protesters and causing injury to four others. After that Marianne O’Kane, the service’s senior assistant director stated that “the available evidence is insufficient to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction of any of the 15 soldiers who were the subjects of the reviews”.

The relatives of some of the victims have stated that they would launch a legal appeal against the service’s decision. John Kelly, whose brother Michael was killed on Bloody Sunday has stated that he does not intend to give up and that “It’s been a long road, up to nearly 50 years. We’re all getting old, a lot of people are dying, but as long as we’re able to walk, we’ll go after them and we certainly will not stop until we see justice for our loved ones”.

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According to reports, a 12-year investigation into the incident concluded that British paratroopers has opened fire at the unarmed protesters and then proceeded to lie for years, an investigation conducted immediately after the events of Bloody Sunday stated that the paratroopers were defending themselves from Irish Republican Army bombers and gunmen.

(With AP inputs, Image: AP)

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