The European Court of Human Rights will today rule on a US woman's claim her husband's death during riots in Northern Ireland was a breach of human rights.
Ms Treasa McShane claims her husband Dermot was killed either intentionally or by "unnecessary" force by soldiers trying to break up demonstrations in Derry in July 1996.
The British government says his death was a "tragic accident" and there was insufficient evidence to provide a "reasonable prospect" of a conviction for any offence of murder, manslaughter or dangerous driving.
Mr and Mrs McShane were with friends in a bar close to a major demonstration in which a crowd with petrol bombs battled the RUC, and British soldiers used plastic bullets.
The court was told that at the time the group left the bar early in the morning, police and army reinforcements had been called in to counter the mob. The main aim was to move a commercial skip and a large piece of hoarding being used by the crowd as a shield.
The army driver of an armoured truck was instructed by an inspector from the RUC to advance towards the hoarding. Mr McShane fell under the hoarding, and died from his injuries soon afterwards in hospital.
Mrs McShane claims not only that her husband's death breached his "right to life" under the Human Rights Convention Convention but that Convention rules outlawing discrimination and ensuring the right to a fair hearing and to an effective legal remedy were also breached.
She also alleges the large number of killings of Catholics and members of republican paramilitary groups compared with a disproportionately small number of prosecutions and convictions indicates the security forces are guilty of a "highly discriminatory" use of lethal force.
PA