JUDGE SET TO RULE ON OMAGH CASE
Judge set to rule on Omagh case
A DECLARATION will be made tomorrow (Friday) whether or not the Northern Judge in charge of the Omagh bomb compensation case will cross the border to hear evidence from the Gardai.
Mr Justice Morgan told the High Court he will have made a decision by the end of the week regarding how the officers' testimonies can be taken.
If the decision is to travel to Dublin to collect this evidence it is believed he will be operating on commission, with full agreement from the Irish authorities as it is outside his jurisdiction.
Senior counsel for relatives of those killed in the atrocity also told the hearing this week that no statements from Gardai were available to be disclosed to the court.
The civil action against five men suspected of leading the paramilitary organisation behind the August 1998 attack which claimed 31 people is due to begin in April.
At the procedural hearing legal arguments also focused on David Rupert, an American trucking company boss turned FBI spy whose evidence at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin helped convict Michael McKevitt on a charge of directing terrorism.
McKevitt along with Seamus Daly, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus McKenna are being sued for �14 million by the families of some of those who were killed in Omagh.
Lord Brennan, the London QC heading the legal team representing those bringing the compensation claim, had raised the prospect of taking evidence from Gardai at an earlier hearing, saying it was necessary to corroborate what Rupert had disclosed about McKevitt.
Major doubts still exist whether the mole, now living in hiding under a witness protection programme after infiltrating the Real IRA, will testify at this civil compensation case.
A lawyer for McKevitt told the High Court, "Given the fundamental nature to the plaintiffs case of the evidence of Mr Rupert, if there's no prospect of that evidence being admitted to trial that would certainly render quite a large part of the proposed evidence of the Gardai redundant."
A DECLARATION will be made tomorrow (Friday) whether or not the Northern Judge in charge of the Omagh bomb compensation case will cross the border to hear evidence from the Gardai.
Mr Justice Morgan told the High Court he will have made a decision by the end of the week regarding how the officers' testimonies can be taken.
If the decision is to travel to Dublin to collect this evidence it is believed he will be operating on commission, with full agreement from the Irish authorities as it is outside his jurisdiction.
Senior counsel for relatives of those killed in the atrocity also told the hearing this week that no statements from Gardai were available to be disclosed to the court.
The civil action against five men suspected of leading the paramilitary organisation behind the August 1998 attack which claimed 31 people is due to begin in April.
At the procedural hearing legal arguments also focused on David Rupert, an American trucking company boss turned FBI spy whose evidence at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin helped convict Michael McKevitt on a charge of directing terrorism.
McKevitt along with Seamus Daly, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus McKenna are being sued for �14 million by the families of some of those who were killed in Omagh.
Lord Brennan, the London QC heading the legal team representing those bringing the compensation claim, had raised the prospect of taking evidence from Gardai at an earlier hearing, saying it was necessary to corroborate what Rupert had disclosed about McKevitt.
Major doubts still exist whether the mole, now living in hiding under a witness protection programme after infiltrating the Real IRA, will testify at this civil compensation case.
A lawyer for McKevitt told the High Court, "Given the fundamental nature to the plaintiffs case of the evidence of Mr Rupert, if there's no prospect of that evidence being admitted to trial that would certainly render quite a large part of the proposed evidence of the Gardai redundant."
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/1925
Published Date: 14-Feb-08
Related Images
There have been no images archived for this article.