Omagh bomb families call for special advocate for closed hearings at inquiry
Omagh Bombing Inquiry chairman Lord Turnbull is hearing arguments around applications during dedicated hearings this week.
Counsel to the inquiry Paul Greaney KC said the inquiry, which is probing whether the 1998 dissident republican bomb attack could have been prevented, will hear some sensitive security evidence in closed hearings.
The atrocity in the Co Tyrone town on August 15 1998 killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
Speaking during hearings in Belfast on Monday, Mr Greaney said the inquiry's legal team recognises that survivors and the bereaved have spent 25 seeking the truth, and may be 'suspicious or even cynical of the UK state's willingness to engage in a way that is straightforward and wholehearted with this inquiry'.
'We acknowledge too, that the idea of evidence being heard in circumstances in which the families and survivors will be excluded is one that they will find difficult to accept, to say the least, and accordingly, we regard it as entirely understandable that some, although not all, have suggested special advocates should be appointed to represent their interests in any closed hearings, and have made applications for that to occur,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
10 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Now that even South Park is mocking Trump over Epstein, he knows he's facing a scandal he can't control: ANDREW NEIL
Donald Trump touched down in Scotland last night, the controversy swirling around the so-called ' Jeffrey Epstein files' in such hot pursuit that it threatens to disturb what is essentially a five-day golfing holiday and plunge him into something of a pickle. The President's MAGA base of true believers refuses to accept the official reasons why the files on the late notorious paedophile can't be made public.
Daily Mail
10 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Air India crash widow is sent the remains of her husband in TWO coffins - as more horrors emerge following botched recovery of UK victims
Horrific new blunders in the operation to identify and repatriate victims of the Air India disaster emerged last night as the grim scandal began to widen. When one family unzipped the body bag shown to them at a mortuary, they were reportedly aghast to find two heads – one belonging to their relative, the other unrecognisable. And a distraught British widow received the remains of her husband in two coffins, delivered weeks apart, obliging her to cremate him twice. The heart-rending mix-ups were revealed as a lawyer representing about 30 of the 53 bereaved British families insisted flaws in the process were widespread, with more claims of relatives being given the wrong remains. While the fiasco has hitherto been blamed on the incompetence of Indian rescue workers and doctors, aviation law specialist Sarah Stewart says some responsibility lies with the team sent by the UK Government to assist them. 'Sadly, the stories of mixed remains have been repeatedly recounted to us by families we represent,' said Ms Stewart. 'Our clients feel that they were let down, with allegedly apparent mistakes by the forensic teams in India and insufficient support by British consular services, the Foreign Office and the British crisis response teams. We have been working with [British] families to prepare a letter to the Prime Minister to address these distressing errors.' On Wednesday, the Daily Mail revealed how the grief of two British families had been exacerbated by the botched operation. The following day, Sir Keir Starmer raised concerns with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during his visit to London. Mr Modi is said to have agreed that this was extremely distressing for the families of the victims. A government spokesman said: 'Formal identification of bodies is a matter for the Indian authorities.' In one case, an unnamed family were told the wrong body had been returned. The error only emerged when a DNA match found by the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad was double-checked by scientists acting for Inner West London Coroner's Court. The lab also found the remains of microbiologist Shobhana Patel, 71, from Orpington in Kent, had been commingled in the coffin with those of an unknown victim. Indian scientists had identified Mrs Patel – who was travelling back to London on Air India Flight 171 with her husband, Ashok, 74 – using DNA supplied by her son, Miten. That his mother's remains had to be separated from the other person's before she could be cremated in a Hindu ceremony this week has deepened his family's trauma. He said: 'People were tired and there was a lot of pressure, but there has to be a level of responsibility that you're sending the right bodies to the UK. There's a lot of anger and frustration.' For Miten, poignant consolation has come with the return of a ring his father was wearing. He is sure it would have been on the hand clutching his mother's as the plane crashed and will wear it in their memory. How the mistakes happened is now under severe scrutiny. Since 81 of the 242 on board the aircraft had the surname Patel, there are suggestions this may have caused confusion. But Mahnendra Patel, 54, who lost his mother, brother and nephew, pointed out every Patel also has another last name which acts as their 'bar code'. Instead he puts it down to a recovery operation that differed from those we see after disasters here. He added: 'They were taking relatives' DNA samples round the clock but they could only do about 15 or 20 tests a day, so the bodies were put in bags, marked with an identity code and stacked in the freezer.' It was when they unzipped one of these bags that a family found the two heads, according to the Times of India. When DNA tests threw up a positive match, relatives were asked to sign for their family members and be photographed with their assigned coffins, says Mahnendra. International emergency services specialists Kenyon then flew them to Britain. Checks in London have thankfully proved Mahnendra received his loved ones' remains. However, the Indian coroner's report said the three bodies would be intact, with his nephew's broken leg the only visible injury. But the British report lists multiple fractures and one of his mother's hands is missing. 'I don't blame them,' Mahnendra says. 'It's a Third World country, so you are going to get a bit of a mix up.'
The Independent
31 minutes ago
- The Independent
Starmer rejects calls for Palestinian statehood as Trump flies to the UK
Sir Keir Starmer has rejected calls from MPs to immediately recognise a Palestinian state, as US President Donald Trump arrived in the UK amid the continued desperate situation in Gaza. Some 221 MPs have signed a letter urging the British Government to recognise the state of Palestine at a meeting of the UN next week. The UK would follow in the footsteps of France if it did, though Mr Trump claimed French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement was 'not going to change anything' ahead of flying to the UK on Friday. Sarah Champion, a senior Labour MP who co-ordinated the cross-party letter, said recognition 'would send a powerful symbolic message that we support the rights of the Palestinian people'. While the PM said he was 'unequivocal' about wanting to see a Palestinian state, he insisted this needed to be part of a 'wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israeli s'. The UK and its allies must work together to broker a peace, he added, likening the effort to the coalition of the willing to support Ukraine. Sir Keir is expected to meet Mr Trump on Monday, as the US president stays in Scotland ahead of a full state visit later this year. On Friday evening, amid mounting global anger over the starving population in Gaza, the Prime Minister also suggested the UK will play a role in dropping aid into Gaza by air. He welcomed that Israel said it would allow aid to be delivered by parachute to alleviate starvation in Gaza. The Prime Minister said the step had 'come far too late', but he insisted the UK will 'do everything we can to get aid in via this route'. Britain is already working alongside Jordan to get aid onto planes, the PM signalled, also adding that children from Gaza in need of specialist medical care will be evacuated to the UK for treatment. In a video statement released on Friday, Sir Keir made plain his desire for a ceasefire. He said: 'I know the British people are sickened by what is happening. The images of starvation and desperation are utterly horrifying. 'The denial of aid to children and babies is completely unjustifiable, just as the continued captivity of hostages is completely unjustifiable.' Meanwhile, in a statement released alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and France's Mr Macron, the Prime Minister urged Israel to stop restricting the flow of aid into Gaza. A call between the three leaders was expected on Friday, but has been postponed until the weekend. US-led peace talks in Qatar were cut short on Thursday, with Washington's special envoy Steve Witkoff accusing Hamas of a 'lack of desire to reach a ceasefire'. The deal under discussion is expected to include a 60-day ceasefire, and aid supplies would be ramped up as negotiations on a lasting truce took place.
