article_snippet: six IRA suspects had all received so-called 'comfort letters' under a peace deal negotiated by Tony Blair.
article_snippet: The Police Service of Northern Ireland wrote to MPs on the Northern Ireland affairs select committee last week, revealing the major new phase in The Police Service of Northern Ireland inquiries into the 'on the run' cases.
article_snippet: In the letter, Mr Kerr, said The Police Service of Northern Ireland did not believe there was any barrier to prosecuting 'on the run' suspects who had been sent 'comfort letters' – because Coalition Government ministers have recently said Letters had no legal force. '
article_snippet: The Police Service of Northern Ireland will 'prioritise' re-examining the cases of 36 'on the runs' whose status was changed from 'wanted' to 'not wanted' during the scheme run by Mr Blair's government under which Mr Downey was mistakenly given a letter of assurance.
article_snippet: It is understood that 'comfort letters' were given to suspects in the Harrods car bomb in 1983, which killed six and injured 90, and the Remembrance Day bombing in Enniskillen in 1987.
article_snippet: It comes as MPs prepare to publish a year-long inquiry into Letters scheme.
article_snippet: Mr Blair's also insisted the 'comfort letters' scheme was 'not secret', even though leading Northern Ireland politicians, including Lord Trimble, who was First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and senior police chiefs in the province were unaware of the 'comfort letters' scheme.
article_snippet: For the past 12 months, MPs on the Northern Ireland affairs select committee have been investigating the on the 'comfort letters' scheme.
article_snippet: In a report to be published on Tuesday, the Northern Ireland affairs select committee is expected to raise questions over whether the policy of sending 'comfort letters' to IRA suspects during Mr Blair's final months in office was lawful.
article_snippet: Some 95 recipients of the so-called 'comfort letters' were linked to almost 300 murders.
highlights_snippet: Fugitive paramilitary suspects had received so-called 'comfort letters'
  'On the runs' not wanted by police were told Fugitive paramilitary suspects could return to the UK .
  