Over 120 people due to give evidence to the Rosemary Nelson inquiry have applied for anonymity, according to the chairman of the inquiry, Sir Michael Morland.
Sir Michael decided at a preliminary inquiry hearing in Belfast yesterday that the formal public inquiry will begin on April 15th next year - just over nine years after Ms Nelson was murdered in a loyalist car bomb attack in Lurgan, Co Armagh, in March 1999.
Sir Michael disclosed that over 350 people have been invited to provide witness statements to the inquiry.
Of these more than 120 witnesses have sought anonymity, with counsel for the British Ministry of Defence also stating that it was likely that several British security force witnesses would seek to give their evidence behind screens.
Sir Michael, a retired English high court judge, is conducting the inquiry with former chief constable of South Wales Sir Anthony Burden and Dame Valerie Strachan, a former chairwoman of the board of British customs and excise.
The British government set up the inquiry on the recommendations of retired Canadian judge Peter Cory.
Ms Nelson was a 40-year-old Catholic solicitor and mother of three who engaged in a number of high-profile cases. These included representing the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition in its dispute with Portadown Orangemen who sought to parade down the nationalist Garvaghy Road from Drumcree.
The Red Hand Defenders, viewed as a cover name for the UDA and the Loyalist Volunteer Force, said it carried out the murder.
The inquiry panel is chiefly charged with determining whether the RUC, British army, Northern Ireland Office or any other British state agency "facilitated her death or obstructed the investigation of it", and whether the investigation of her death was carried out with due diligence.
The inquiry commissioned Robert Ayling, former acting chief constable of Kent, to prepare a report on whether the murder investigation was carried out with due diligence. It is due to be presented to the inquiry before the inquiry begins in full session.
