Northern Ireland: Widow of man turned into ‘human bomb’ by IRA criticises Troubles legacy bill
The widow of a man turned into a “human bomb” by the IRA has hit out at a controversial law which would effectively end prosecutions linked to The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
MPs have approved the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, which will stop new cases and inquests being opened into killings on both sides of the conflict, as it passed its final Commons hurdle.
Patsy Gillespie, from Derry, was strapped into a van and forced to drive a bomb into a British Army checkpoint on the border between Londonderry and Donegal on 24 October 1990.
The device was triggered by remote control and the 43-year-old man was killed along with five soldiers – he managed to save the lives of other troops after shouting a warning to them.
Sinn Fein described him as a “legitimate target” because he worked in the army’s canteen. But no-one has ever been convicted over the atrocity.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998.
Under the new Westminster law, which has sparked anger from all sides on the island of Ireland, conditional amnesty will be offered to those who reveal information about the incidents to a new truth recovery body.
‘They’re not getting punished’
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Gillespie’s widow Kathleen criticised the legislation, saying: “What they did to Patsy has been condoned and all the other atrocities are being condoned.
“At the end of the day, they’re getting away with what they’ve done. And they think they are these big men, they are trotting about… And they’re not getting punished.
“So let me ask whoever is listening to this. How would you feel if you were in my position? Would you be alright about it.”
She said if one of the men involved in the 1990 attack ever came to her front door asking for forgiveness she said she would “make it very clear there was no forgiveness in me”.
Mrs Gillespie added: “The one question that I would ask is, what made you think it was okay to sit down with other men and plan what you did to my husband?”
Why bill could be biggest test of Anglo-Irish relations in 50 years
Legislation to end historical prosecutions in Northern Ireland could be the biggest test of Anglo-Irish relations in half a century.
It was 1971 when Dublin last brought a case against the UK government to the European Court of Human Rights.
Opposition to the controversial Legacy Bill has created the most unlikely alliance of Unionists, Nationalists, Dublin, Washington and the EU.
The government will focus on the fact that British Army veterans will be granted immunity from prosecution for historical offences.
But the amnesty will also apply to the very terrorists who murdered British soldiers on the streets of Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris claims the bill will “draw a line under the past”.
But relatives of victims say it only benefits perpetrators because it is they who will choose between truth and justice.
If someone accused of murder provides information to a new Truth Recovery Body, they will be granted a prosecutorial amnesty.
With 3,000 of the 3,500 Troubles murders unresolved, the legacy of the past has clouded the Northern Ireland peace process.
But the cloud won’t be lifted by demanding too high a price from those who have paid most – the victims.
Read more:
The Good Friday Agreement 25 years on
Bloody Sunday: A ‘watershed’ in the history of The Troubles
Gerry Duddy, whose 17-year-old brother Jackie was shot dead by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday in 1972, said he was “very angry” at the new legislation because he “never got any justice”.
He told Sky News: “If I draw a line now, I am letting my brother down and other people that died and to the British Army.
“And I made a promise one time and I intend to keep that promise going for as long as I’m here on this Earth.
“I’m very, very angry. We never got the chance to finally finish grieving. We are still grieving because we never got any justice.”
Gerry Duddy said he was ‘very, very angry’
Last year, the sister of Jackie Derry urged the soldier who fired the fatal shot to admit it.
Kay Duddy said Jackie cannot rest until that happens and directly appealed to former members of the British Parachute Regiment.
She said: “Please put your hands up and say you did it, so we can lay our wee brother to rest.”
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said he believes the bill – which will now return to the Lords to be approved before becoming law – will “draw a line under the past”, and it has received support from a number of veterans’ organisations.
Update (April 3, 5:43 am UTC): This article has been updated to add information on the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act.
The US House Financial Services Committee has passed a Republican-backed stablecoin framework bill, which will now head to the House floor for a full vote.
The Committee passed the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act, with a 32-17 vote on April 2, with six Democrats voting in favor.
The bill was introduced on Feb. 6 by committee Chair French Hill and the chair of its Digital Assets Subcommittee, Bryan Steil — reportedly drafted with the help of the world’s largest stablecoin issue, Tether.
Source: Financial Services GOP
The bill would provide rules around payment stablecoins, a crypto token tied to a currency such as the US dollar, and aims to ensure issuers give information about their business and how they back their tokens.
During an earlier markup session, the committee’s leading Democrat, Maxine Waters, who later voted against the bill, criticized her Republican peers for “setting an unacceptable and dangerous precedent” with the STABLE Act.
She said President Donald Trump could use the bill to allow his family’s stablecoin to be used in government payments, and argued the bill validates Trump “and his insiders’ efforts to write rules of the road that will enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.”
In late March, the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture launched a stablecoin, World Liberty Financial USD (USD1). Meanwhile, the US Housing Department, which oversees social housing, was reportedly looking to experiment with using stablecoins for some of its functions.
Stablecoin GENIUS Act also weaves through Congress
Other stablecoin-related bills are also working their way through Congress, including the Republican-led Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, which lays out oversight and reserve rules for issuers.
Related: Crypto has a regulatory capture problem in Washington — or does it?
The US Senate Banking Committee voted through the GENIUS Act in an 18-6 vote on March 13, after Senator Bill Hagerty, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, updated it following consultation with the Committee’s Democrats.
Before the vote, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said the updated GENIUS Act made “significant improvements to a number of important provisions” in areas such as consumer protections and authorized stablecoin issuers.
Both the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act will now wait until debate time on the floor of the House and Senate, respectively, before they head for a floor vote.
Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported on X that two unnamed crypto lobbyists said there is likely to be “a coordinated push behind the scenes over the next few weeks to get the two bills to mirror each other, as there are still some differences between them.”
Doing so would “avoid having to set up a so-called conference committee which is formed so members from both chambers can negotiate to create a final version of the bill everyone agrees on,” she added.
Magazine: How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025
Tulip Siddiq has told Sky News her “lawyers are ready” to handle any formal questions about allegations she is involved in corruption in Bangladesh.
Asked whether she regrets apparent links with the Bangladeshi Awami League political party, Ms Siddiq said “why don’t you look at my legal letter and see if I have any questions to answer… [the Bangladeshi authorities] have not once contacted me and I’m waiting to hear from them”.
The London MP resigned as a Treasury minister in January after being named in several corruption inquiries in Bangladesh.
In her first public comments since leaving government, Ms Siddiq said “there’s been allegations for months on end and no one has contacted me”.
Last month, the interim leader of Bangladesh told Sky News the MP had “wealth left behind” in the country “and should be made responsible”.
Lawyers acting for Ms Siddiq wrote to the Bangladeshi Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) several weeks ago saying the allegations were “false and vexatious”.
The letter said the ACC must put questions to Ms Siddiq “by no later than 25 March 2025” or “we shall presume that there are no legitimate questions to answer”.
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Staff from the NCA visited Bangladesh as part of initial work to support the interim government in the country.
In a post online today, the former minister said the deadline had expired and the authorities had not replied.
Sky News has approached the Bangladeshi government for comment.
The allegations against Ms Siddiq are focused on links to her aunt Sheikh Hasina – who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh for 20 years.
Ms Hasina was forced to flee the country in August following weeks of deadly protests.
She is accused of becoming an autocrat, with politically-motivated arrests, extra-judicial killings and other abuses allegedly happening on her watch. Hasina claims it’s all a political witch hunt.
Electrocuted on their genitals and mouths sewn up: Inside Bangladesh’s ‘death squad’ jails
Ms Siddiq was found to have lived in several London properties that had links back to the Awami League political party that her aunt still leads.
She referred herself to the prime minister’s standards adviser Sir Laurie Magnus who said he had “not identified evidence of improprieties” but added it was “regrettable” Ms Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of the ties to her aunt.
Ms Siddiq said continuing in her role would be “a distraction” for the government but insisted she had done nothing wrong.
Cryptocurrency exchange OKX reportedly hired former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to advise it over the federal probe that resulted in the firm pleading guilty to several violations and agreeing to pay $505 million in fines and penalties.
Cuomo, a New York-registered attorney, advised OKX on legal issues stemming from the probe sometime after August 2021 when he resigned as New York overnor, Bloomberg reported on April 2, citing people familiar with the matter.
“He spoke with company executives regularly and counseled them on how to respond to the criminal investigation,” Bloomberg said.
The Seychelles-based firm pled guilty to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business in violation of US Anti-Money Laundering laws on Feb. 24 and agreed to pay $84 million worth of penalties while forfeiting $421 million worth of fees earned from mostly institutional clients.
The breaches occurred from 2018 to 2024 despite OKX having an official policy preventing US persons from transacting on its crypto exchange since 2017, the Department of Justice noted at the time.
A spokesperson for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, told Bloomberg that Cuomo has been providing private legal services representing individuals and corporations on a variety of matters since resigning as New York governor.
“He has not represented clients before a New York city or state agency and routinely recommends former colleagues for positions,” Azzopardi added.
OKX reportedly wasn’t willing to comment on its relationships with outside firms.
Cuomo also influenced OKX to make executive appointments: Bloomberg
Cuomo, who is now running for mayor of New York City, also advised OKX to appoint his friend US Attorney Linda Lacewell to OKX’s board of directors, Bloomberg said.
Lacewell, a former superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, was added to the board in 2024 and was named OKX’s new chief legal officer on April 1, according to a recent company statement.
Source: Linda Lacewell
Related: New York bill aims to protect crypto investors from memecoin rug pulls
After the investigation concluded, OKX said it would seek out a compliance consultant to remedy the issues stemming from the federal probe and bolster its regulatory compliance program.
“Our vision is to make OKX the gold standard of global compliance at scale across different markets and their respective regulatory bodies,” OKX CEO Star Xu said in a Feb. 24 X post.
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