Ex-British soldiers face charges over 1972 IRA murder

Two former British soldiers will face charges for murdering a prominent member of the IRA in Northern Ireland in 1972, prosecutors said Friday.

Now aged 67 and 65, they are accused of being part of an army patrol that shot 24-year-old Joe McCann, an activist with the anti-British paramilitary group, in Belfast city centre.

“Following a careful consideration of all the available evidence it has been decided to prosecute two men for the offence of murder,” the Public Prosecution Service said in a statement.

“The two defendants in the case are surviving members of the army patrol which shot Mr McCann. A third member of the patrol who also fired at Mr McCann died in the intervening years.”

The two suspects, who have not been named, are likely to appear in court next year.

Police investigated McCann’s death in 1972 but there were no prosecutions, and it became one of around 3,000 unsolved murders of The Troubles.

The case was reviewed by Northern Ireland’s Historical Enquiries Team in 2012 and in 2014 the attorney general referred it to prosecutors to decide if there could be charges brought.

Violence rocked the province throughout the 1970s, 1980s and much of the 1990s as groups such as the IRA fought for an end to British control.

Northern Ireland is now governed by a power-sharing executive.