IN/0732

McKevitt to seek review of Omagh victims' fund

REAL IRA leader Michael McKevitt is to challenge the government's decision to give the Omagh bomb victims over £700,000 to help fund their multi-million pound compensation claim.
The Lord Chancellor authorised the payment last year when he directed the newly-formed NI Legal Services Commission to assist the Omagh claimants to the tune of £742,702.
But now McKevitt - serving 20 years in Portlaoise Prison - is seeking a judicial review of the legislation under which the payment was made.
His lawyers will argue that the Access to Justice Order passed in 2003 was unlawful and they are to seek an order quashing the Lord Chancellor's decision.
McKevitt (54) from Blackrock, Co Louth, and four others are being sued for £14 million.
They have been refused legal aid to defend the case and this led to their lawyers pulling out.
In papers lodged in the High Court in Belfast, McKevitt's solicitors, Kevin Winters and Co, claimed that the 2003 legislation was created for an improper purpose and was therefore void.
The papers state: "It is submitted that the proceedings, far from being compensatory, are intended to be accusatory.
"Though civil in character, the essence is an attempt to establish liability before a court of law for the most serious criminal offences. "The proceedings are, effectively, a prosecution of the defendants using a civil standard of proof. As a consequence of not having legal aid, the applicant [McKevitt] now has no legal representation and cannot attend the hearing to defend himself.
"The proceedings will proceed without any input from him in circumstances where it is clearly the intention of the plaintiffs to hold the applicant criminally liable in the eyes of the public for the Omagh bombing."
The Real IRA claimed responsibility for the 1998 atrocity in which 29 people were killed.
Before the judicial review can be held a judge has to grant leave and this preliminary hearing is expected to take place shortly.