UK officials ‘reluctantly’ agreed to Gerry Kelly royal pardon

A British official reluctantly agreed to a royal pardon for Maze prison escapee Gerry Kelly rather than see him freed in Holland, state files from 1989 have revealed.

The future Sinn Féin Stormont minister was arrested in the Netherlands in 1986 — about three years after the biggest prison escape in UK history — and extradited back to the North to face charges relating to the attempted murder of a prison officer.

Conditions set by the Dutch meant he could not face charges relating to London bombings for which he had already been convicted and was serving life sentences, leading UK officials to cancel the sentence.