A former republican prisoner who may have only days or weeks left to live is facing trial for an offence committed in 1977 because the Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Barra McGrory claims that the ‘letter of comfort’ given to him by the Blair government promising no prosecution was issued in error.

The case is almost a replica of the controversy surrounding John Downey, the alleged IRA bomber, whose trial on murder charges arising from the 1982 Hyde Park bombing collapsed when his lawyers argued successfully that the ‘comfort letter’ he had received protected him from prosecution.

Barra McGrory, North’s DPP – wants to prosecute a dying man and tear up his ‘comfort letter’ promising no prosecution

It emerged later that Downey’s ‘comfort letter’ had been issued by mistake since he was wanted by British police when it was issued and the affair has pitched the legal and…