Former British soldiers will not have to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday Tribunal in Derry because of the threat posed by dissident republican terrorists, following a Court of Appeal ruling yesterday.
The chairman of the Bloody Sunday Tribunal, Lord Saville of Newdigate, must now decide whether to hear the evidence from the former soldiers by video-link or move the tribunal to another venue in Britain. The three judges at the Court of Appeal upheld last month's High Court ruling which quashed the tribunal's decision that the witnesses must give their evidence in Derry's Guildhall.
They said the High Court was correct in its conclusion that the tribunal's ruling on venue did not comply with the European Convention on Human Rights, guaranteeing the right to life should be protected by law.
The reserved judgment was delivered by Lord Phillips, Lord Justice Jonathan Parker and Lord Justice Dyson. Lord Phillips said he sympathised with the desire of families of the 14 people killed when British soldiers fired on a civil rights march in Derry in 1972 that the whole inquiry should take place in Derry. However, the risk to the soldier witnesses posed by dissident republican terrorists "does constitute a compelling reason" why their evidence should be taken in a venue other than Derry.
Meanwhile a spokesman for the families of the 13 people shot dead on Bloody Sunday said yesterday they accepted the British soldiers involved would never come to Derry to give evidence to the Saville Inquiry.
Mr Liam Wray said yesterday's judgment did not surprise the victims' families. "I am now resigned to the fact that the soldier who shot and killed my innocent brother will not have to face the family of his innocent victim. It's a terrible day for British justice," he said.