BOMB ACCUSED CHALLENGED OVER JUDICIAL INQUIRY
Bomb accused challenged over judicial inquiry
BY DAVID YOUNG
THE man cleared of the Omagh bomb was challenged yesterday to fully cooperate with a cross-border judicial inquiry into the atrocity.
Sean Hoey, 38, from Jonesborough, south Armagh, who was acquitted last month of the 29 murders at Omagh, said he supported calls by victims' relatives for a north-south tribunal.
He said: "The Omagh families and my own family deserve to know the whole truth and only a proper cross-border public inquiry will get to the truth.
"I want to know what the British and Irish governments are afraid of from an inquiry."
But victims' relatives challenged Hoey to put himself up for public scrutiny.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the August 1998 outrage, said yesterday: "Will he fully cooperate in any public inquiry?
"We know he did not go into the witness box at his trial but is he now prepared to fully cooperate?"
Speaking in yesterday's Irish News, Sean Hoey said: "People only have to look at the judge's verdict to see there was a concerted campaign of falsified police statements and discredited forensic evidence to try and make me a scapegoat for Omagh."
Hoey spent four years in jail awaiting trial.
"I lost four years of my life sitting in a jail cell charged with something I had absolutely nothing to do with.
"I can never begin to understand the tragedy that Omagh families, have gone through.
"All I can say is that I have nothing to do with Omagh and that I fully support their calls for a public inquiry."
The Omagh families have been pushing for a full north-south investigation but it has been resisted in both Belfast and Dublin.
Mr Gallagher said: "How long can the British and Irish governments resist it?"
BY DAVID YOUNG
THE man cleared of the Omagh bomb was challenged yesterday to fully cooperate with a cross-border judicial inquiry into the atrocity.
Sean Hoey, 38, from Jonesborough, south Armagh, who was acquitted last month of the 29 murders at Omagh, said he supported calls by victims' relatives for a north-south tribunal.
He said: "The Omagh families and my own family deserve to know the whole truth and only a proper cross-border public inquiry will get to the truth.
"I want to know what the British and Irish governments are afraid of from an inquiry."
But victims' relatives challenged Hoey to put himself up for public scrutiny.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the August 1998 outrage, said yesterday: "Will he fully cooperate in any public inquiry?
"We know he did not go into the witness box at his trial but is he now prepared to fully cooperate?"
Speaking in yesterday's Irish News, Sean Hoey said: "People only have to look at the judge's verdict to see there was a concerted campaign of falsified police statements and discredited forensic evidence to try and make me a scapegoat for Omagh."
Hoey spent four years in jail awaiting trial.
"I lost four years of my life sitting in a jail cell charged with something I had absolutely nothing to do with.
"I can never begin to understand the tragedy that Omagh families, have gone through.
"All I can say is that I have nothing to do with Omagh and that I fully support their calls for a public inquiry."
The Omagh families have been pushing for a full north-south investigation but it has been resisted in both Belfast and Dublin.
Mr Gallagher said: "How long can the British and Irish governments resist it?"
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/717
Published Date: 04-Jan-08
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