Victims to sue Adams and McGuinness
Writs seeking damages from Gerry Adams and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness are expected to be issued in the High Court in Belfast this week.
Victims’ campaigner Willie Frazer and Michelle Williamson, whose parents were killed in the 1993 Shankill bombing, are seeking damages over the use of Libyan supplied weapons by the IRA since the 1970s.
A former prison officer and another man who was also a victim of IRA violence in Co Tyrone are also involved in the issuing of five writs against Adams, McGuinness and three other republicans, including the organisation’s former Chief of Staff, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has always denied being a member of the IRA while Mid-Ulster Sinn Fein MP Martin McGuinness has previously admitted being a senior member of the Provisional IRA in Londonderry at the time of Bloody Sunday.
The writs are seeking damages for the alleged involvement of the five republicans in the importation and use of guns and explosives supplied by Colonel Gaddafi to the IRA.
The revelation last week that Harold Wilson’s Government offered the Libyan leader £14m in 1975 to end its military support to the Provisionals has added impetus to the campaign for compensation from the North African state for the victims of IRA violence.
The arms supply from Libya was confirmed in March 1973 when Belfast republican Joe Cahill was arrested on the Claudia off the Co Waterford coast with a consignment of weapons for the Provos.
Cahill and senior Provo Brian Keenan — who died of cancer last year — travelled to Libya before then with other IRA members to attend training camps run by the Libyan leader for international terrorists.
Documents transferred recently from the Foreign Office to the National Archives in Kew have revealed telegrams and secret policy documents drawn up by Wilson’s Labour government to try to agree a settlement with Libya to end the regime’s support for the IRA. But Colonel Gaddafi demanded £51m, the equivalent of £1.5bn today, which Wilson turned down.
Willie Frazer said the release of the documents has strengthened the cases of victims seeking compensation from Libya and from leading republicans here.
“They prove our case that Libya was supplying armaments to the IRA since the early 1970s. It’s irrefutable evidence which helps the cases being brought by the victims here against Libya.
“Our actions in the High Court will call on Adams and McGuinness, ‘Slab’ Murphy and two other republicans to answer these writs,” Frazer said.
The south Armagh victims’ campaigner said that an action in America against Libya was continuing despite legal obstacles being put in the way.
“There are some people sitting on the sidelines criticising victims or their relatives for taking Libya to task, but we’re going where the evidence leads us and we’re taking positive steps to bring Libya and the people here they supported to account,” he said.
