The unprecedented victory by 12 relatives of victims of the 1998 Omagh bomb may prompt other legal actions against the backers of the IRA or al-Qaeda by victims’ families.
A multibillion-pound class action has already been lodged in the name of 143 families over the IRA bombings between 1983 and 1997, including Warrington, Enniskillen, Manchester and Canary Wharf.
Jason McCue, solicitor with the London-based law firm H2O who acted for the Omagh families, said that the writ had been lodged in the United States against Colonel Gaddafi and Libya over the arming of the IRA. He said: “There are already other lawsuits pending over terrorism, which have been watching the outcome of this case.
“Now this ruling has shown that people can make terrorists pay for their actions.”
Yesterday’s case is the first successful legal action of its kind. Six families who lost relatives in the Omagh bombing sought damages in the civil courts from the men they believed responsible for the atrocity after criminal prosecutions had been thrown out.
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Because individuals had been identified, lawyers were able to bring a civil action in what is thought to be the first successful lawsuit against alleged members of a terrorist organisation.
The Omagh families also had the satisfaction of hearing Mr Justice Morgan name four men as responsible for the killings.
Elsewhere, in other terrorist-related actions, victims’ families have to pursue the funders of the terrorist organisations.
Lord Brennan, QC, a leading personal injuries barrister and Labour peer, described the court case as an “unprecedented civil action” in which “for the first time, private citizens are confronting terrorists in our courts”.
The case broke legal ground on other fronts: the hearing was relocated from Belfast to the Supreme Court in Dublin in May, for evidence to be taken from an Irish police officer — the first time a Northern Ireland judge had travelled to the Irish Republic on official business.
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The case was also funded by the British taxpayer, which agreed after representations from Peter Mandelson, then Northern Ireland Secretary, that it was a case for “exceptional” legal aid and in 2003 contributed £800,000 towards the £1.5 million costs needed.
The multibillion-pound class action pending against Libya by the US courts includes victims and relatives of IRA bombings between 1983 and 1997. The suit claims that Colonel Gaddafi’s regime helped the IRA by supplying it with money, Semtex and other weapons. The litigants include Colin Parry, whose son died in the 1993 Warrington bomb and relatives or survivors of ten IRA attacks. Mr McCue said: “Ordinary individuals, victims, have pursued justice and got a result against the odds and got damning judgments and the highest-ever damages in Northern Ireland, which tells terrorists that they can’t get away with it.”