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A Loughgall la SAS “agì in maniera sproporzionata”

SAS ‘acted disproportionately’ in Loughgall

SAS soldiers who shot dead eight IRA men and a bystander during an attack on a police station in Co Armagh acted excessively, a lawyer for the bereaved has claimed.

In the village of Loughgall on 8 May 1987, eight IRA men mounted a bomb attack on the part-time RUC station, using a hijacked digger.

The SAS opened fire, prompting allegations the Government was operating a shoot-to-kill policy.

A passer-by Anthony Hughes was also killed.

Last September England’s Advocate General, having considered the national security sensitive material involved, at the request of the Secretary of State, ruled fresh inquests should go ahead.

As they arrived for the review of the legacy inquests, the families insisted they should proceed quickly.

“The families have been fighting for this,” Mairead Kelly, whose brother Patrick was shot dead, said.

“We had an inquest in 1995 that we had to leave and we fought that through the European Court to get a decision that it wasn’t Article 2 compliant so today we are hoping with all the information that’s there we can now start afresh.”

Solicitor Darragh Mackin added: “We believe the truth will be told through the inquest, we know already that the Secretary of State has the documents, the process has already been done, it’s now time to get the inquest on and to prove that this was a premeditated attack, that there was information prior to that night.”

Lord Justice Weir, who is trying to establish when the backlog of 56 legacy inquests can proceed, heard solicitor for the families, Peter Corrigan, argue the SAS soldiers could have effected arrests that night, instead when they entered Loughgall he said they acted excessively and disproportionately.

He told the judge they had been waiting 29 years for an inquest and it must be heard promptly.

Mr Corrigan said: “It flies in the face of expedition and promptness that we still don’t have a date set for an inquest…so that the public can have confidence that the state are properly investigating controversial murders like this case.”

A barrister for the Ministry of Defence and the PSNI said he now had a list of the names of the soldiers in Loughgall on that day and would hope to be able to progress the case.

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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