Ireland launches legal case against UK over Northern Ireland amnesty law

FILE PHOTO: General view of the European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg, December 3, 2013. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) -The European Court Of Human Rights said on Friday that Ireland had launched a legal challenge against Britain over a new law that gives conditional amnesties to former soldiers and militants involved in decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

The law has been condemned by victims' families, human-rights groups and all major political parties on the island of Ireland, including British unionist and Irish nationalist. It came into force last September.