Appeal of IRA ceasefire ruling

A JUDGE'S ruling that the IRA ceasefire did not break down last year is to be appealed, it has been learned.

A JUDGE'S ruling that the IRA ceasefire did not break down last year is to be appealed, it has been learned.

The appeal has been lodged by Ms Michelle Williamson, whose parents were killed with seven other people in the Shankill bombing in 1993. In the High Court in Belfast last November Mr Justice Kerr dismissed Ms Williamson's application for judicial review of Dr Mo Mowlam's decision.

The judge held that the former Northern secretary had not acted irrationally, despite the RUC's advice that the IRA was involved in the murder of Mr Charles Bennett and smuggling arms from the US.

Papers lodged in the High Court list seven grounds of appeal, including the claim that the judge erred in holding that parliament contemplated it would be possible for an organisation such as the IRA to be engaged in acts of violence while maintaining a "complete and unequivocal ceasefire".

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This was the basis of Ms Williamson's original application. A date for the appeal has not yet been fixed.