A judge was to decide yesterday whether the men alleged to be responsible for Northern Ireland’s worst terrorist atrocity should pay millions of dollars to the families of its victims.
Family members of the some of the people who died in the 1998 Omagh bombing are seeking up to £14 million (US$22.3 million) from five men they hold responsible for the attack that killed 29 people. They are also suing the Real Irish Republican Army, the dissident Irish Republican faction that masterminded the bombing.
The trial at Belfast High Court marked the first time victims of Northern Ireland terrorism have sought justice through a civil action. It stems in part from the families’ frustration with the criminal justice system — which, more than a decade after the blast, has yet to deliver any convictions able to withstand judicial scrutiny.
Civil suits in the UK have a lower threshold of proof than criminal cases, and the suit was partly inspired by the successful US civil action against OJ Simpson, which found him responsible for the 1994 killings of his former, wife Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
It alleges that Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, Seamus Daly and Seamus McKenna all played a role in the attack. They men deny the charge.
The court has heard from spouses, parents, brothers and sisters of the victims — as well as police officers who described the scenes of carnage they encountered at the scene of the bombing.
The legal bid has cost an estimated £2 million and the families have been helped by fundraising efforts by the likes of former US president Bill Clinton and Irish musician Bob Geldof.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden, 21, was among those slain, said the verdict would mark the end of an extended legal fight.
“Regardless of the result this has been worthwhile, it has empowered the families like never before,” he said. “Unlike the other cases where the PSNI and Garda [UK and Irish police] have taken the lead, this has all been led by the families … It’s now down to the court to decide.”
The lead lawyer for the lawsuit, Daniel Brennan, has said the lawsuit, if successful, could open the floodgates for similar actions against reputed paramilitary warlords responsible for the bulk of the 3,700 slayings in Northern Ireland’s four-decade conflict.
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