Call for fresh Omagh bomb probe
A WESTMINSTER committee has declared that “too many questions remain unanswered” regarding the Omagh bomb atrocity.
The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has called for a new investigation to determine whether the state withheld vital intelligence from detectives seeking the perpetrators of the 1998 blast.
The demand comes following an independent inquiry into a BBC investigative programme which claimed that intelligence services had tapped the mobile phones of those who planted the bomb, prior to the incident.
This information was never passed on to the then RUC, according to the programme.
A total of 29 people were killed in the bomb attack on the Co Tyrone town, blamed on dissident republicans.
Committee chairman Sir Patrick Cormack claimed the Omagh families deserve justice.
“Far too many questions remain unanswered,” he said.
“The criminal justice system has failed to bring to justice those responsible for the Omagh bombing. The least that those who were bereaved or injured have the right to expect are answers to those questions.”
In 2007, the only person to stand trial in relation to the atrocity, Jonesborough man Sean Hoey was found not guilty of a total of 58 charges.
Last year, relatives of the bereaved won an unprecedented civil action against four men accused of carrying out the attack in 1998.
The leader of the Real IRA, Michael McKevitt, and three other men – Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly – were found liable for the bombing by a judge at Belfast Crown Court. A fifth man, Seamus McKenna, was cleared.
