As the Bloody Sunday Inquiry resumes oral hearings today, its legal team is expected to receive a draft statement from Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein in which he will acknowledge his former high-ranking position in the Provisional IRA in Derry.
Tribunal solicitors have been in contact with a legal representative of Mr McGuinness in recent weeks about arrangements for him to give direct evidence to the inquiry in regard to events on Bloody Sunday, January 30th, 1972.
His lawyer has asked the tribunal to agree to the provision of a high level of legal representation - possibly including two senior barristers - for the Northern Education Minister when he comes to give evidence.
It was pointed out that serious allegations have been made against Mr McGuinness in the course of the hearings so far, including a charge that he fired a shot which may have precipitated the first wave of killings by British paratroopers.
The tribunal ruled, however, that Mr McGuinness must first provide his own statement of the events to the inquiry's solicitors before a decision will be made on the level of legal representation to be afforded to him.
Up to Friday evening, when the inquiry's Derry offices closed for the weekend, no statement had been received from Mr McGuinness. However, in what appeared to be a calculated "leak" to RTE's Charlie Bird yesterday, elements of what he will say emerged.
According to the RTE report, he will confirm earlier reports that he was No 2, or "Adjutant", in the IRA's command structure in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday.
He will say that on the day before Bloody Sunday he instructed all IRA volunteers in the area that they were not to engage with the British army and that the civil rights march was to be allowed to take place without violence.
He will also state that, as previous witness evidence has indicated, two IRA units were instructed to remain on standby in the Creggan and Brandywell areas of the city and that all other weapons were to be held in secure dumps.
Mr McGuinness will strenuously deny allegations emerging from British Secret Service sources that he fired a Thompson sub-machinegun at an early stage in the events.
The tribunal judges have reviewed the documents containing these allegations, but they have not been made available to the various parties represented at the inquiry as a ruling is awaited on applications by the British Home Secretary and the Ministry of Defence for Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificates in respect of the material.
Mr McGuinness will assert that Provisional IRA members did not open fire at the soldiers, and that no armed members took part in the march.
When his preliminary statement is supplied to the tribunal shortly, it is expected that its solicitors will seek to meet him in person to confirm its contents, and probably to seek to expand on it in many respects.
If a final version can be agreed upon and formally signed by Mr McGuinness, it will be circulated to the interested parties and the tribunal is likely to grant him legal representation and seek to hear his sworn evidence at the public hearings as soon as possible.
There will be keen interest in his witness testimony, as counsel for British soldiers, as well as the tribunal's own counsel, are likely to press him for sensitive details regarding the IRA's membership, armaments and activities around the time of Bloody Sunday.
Mr McGuinness indicated last week that before supplying his preliminary statement to the inquiry he would meet representatives of the Bloody Sunday victims' families to communicate its contents to them. There is speculation that this meeting may have taken place over the weekend.
Meanwhile, at least five self-acknowledged members of the Official IRA in 1972 are still in contact with the inquiry through legal representatives with a view to giving evidence on their role on Bloody Sunday. These include several who are believed to have fired shots at, or around, the time that the paratroopers rushed into the Bogside and shot dead 13 civilians and wounded at least 15 others, one of whom subsequently died.
Today's session of the inquiry, the 105th day of oral hearings, may also hear details of new proposals by the tribunal to deal with the controversy over where the soldiers should give evidence, and whether or not they should be permitted to testify from behind screens.
The soldiers, or former soldiers, are opposed to coming to Derry to give their evidence, and the families are known to be deeply unhappy with the alternative that the entire inquiry should be relocated in London or elsewhere for this phase of the hearings.
It is now believed the tribunal will propose a possible compromise - that the evidence of members of the armed forces could be given via remote video link from a secret location. Such an arrangement, however, will also encounter strong objections from the families and their lawyers.
The Regional Development Minister, Mr Gregory Campbell, has also been invited to make a submission to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
The invitation arose from a 1994 BBC documentary in which he claimed he had evidence to suggest that Mr McGuinness was actively involved in the IRA at the time of Bloody Sunday.
Mr Campbell claimed Mr McGuinness's "admission comes conveniently in the same week as I was written to by . . . the inquiry regarding my knowledge of his involvement in the IRA. Time was running out for Mr McGuinness and now he seeks to derive some perverted credit for an admission that should come as no surprise to anyone."