The legal challenge mounted by the former soldier witnesses in the Bloody Sunday inquiry who object to giving evidence in Derry could jeopardise the proceeding's credibility, the High Court in London was told yesterday.
Lawyers for the families of Bloody Sunday victims contended that the witnesses' fear of reprisal attacks was unfounded and that their use of the English courts to argue their case was not winning the confidence of the people of Derry.
The dispute over where the former soldiers should give evidence was "capable of damaging the whole process of the inquiry and its ability to produce a truth which will be accepted as truth by people whose fears and doubts have to be allayed", Mr Michael Lavery QC said.
Judgment was reserved on a challenge by 36 former soldiers to a ruling by the tribunal that military witnesses must attend the Guildhall in Derry to give their evidence.