LONDON, March 10 (UPI) -- British lawmakers passed a motion Thursday to impose financial sanctions on Sinn Fein.
The House of Commons agreed without a vote that the four Sinn Fein members of parliament should lose their parliamentary allowances -- amounting to $845,000 -- for one year.
The decision was taken after the Independent Monitoring Commission -- a group which monitors paramilitary activity -- said the party had sanctioned the IRA's multimillion-dollar robbery of the Northern Bank in Belfast last December.
Although eventually defeated, 170 members of Parliament voted for the party to be permanently evicted from its Westminster offices, saying the financial sanctions did not go far enough.
Several said the penalty was small change to Sinn Fein, which is widely acknowledged to be the richest political party in Western Europe.
It allegedly receives millions of dollars from massive money-laundering and crime operations carried out by the IRA.
The four Sinn Fein members of Parliament have never taken up their seats in Westminster because they refuse to swear an oath to the Queen of England, which would amount to acknowledging her as the head of state of Northern Ireland.
