A London inquest into the death of an IRA suspect, Mr Diarmuid O'Neill, who was shot by a Metropolitan Police officer in 1996, is to open at Kingston Crown Court today.
In September 1996, after a six-week surveillance operation by police and intelligence services, police officers raided a west London house to arrest the five occupants, believing them to be an IRA active service unit planning a bombing campaign in Britain.
Mr O'Neill, who was unarmed, was shot during the raid. His friends and family maintain it was unnecessary to shoot Mr O'Neill and that the police officer acted wrongly. Two IRA men arrested at the house, Patrick Kelly and Brian McHugh, were sentenced to 20 years and 25 years respectively in 1997.
The Police Complaints Authority held an investigation into the raid and last April the Crown Prosecution Service said the police officer who shot Mr O'Neill would not be prosecuted.
A Sinn Fein Assembly member, Mr Gerry Kelly, is expected to attend the hearing.