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Omagh lawyer calls for GCHQ secrets

A lawyer running the Omagh civil case against several suspected Real IRA leaders has challenged the Northern Ireland Assembly to press Gordon Brown to give his legal team secret GCHQ surveillance transcripts of the bombers.

Jason McCue, whose firm H20 is behind the civil action, said the best thing the assembly could achieve for Omagh victims and their families would be to issue a united call for the Prime Minister to release the intercepts of conversations between the Real IRA plotters obtained in the Irish Republic.

The assembly will debate a motion on Tuesday calling for a cross-border investigation into the Omagh bombing. Alliance party leader David Ford said that 'given the cross-border aspects of the crime, many will not gain closure without a full cross-border investigation'.

He said any inquiry had to be legally binding to ensure no details or evidence would be withheld. The debate will start on Tuesday afternoon and relatives of some of the 29 people killed in the 1998 massacre will be in the chamber.

Read entire article at Observer (UK)